O Castitas Lilium
by Agent Eye
Summary: A murder happens, and mysterious person appears. The only thing the culprit left was a dead, black lily.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A Grim Beginning

A/N: A little short, I know, but I start my fanfics like this.

He stared at the drop of blood that slowly fell from his hand as it hit the small puddle of blood of blood. He looked at the poor man on the old metal floor, who was bleeding from his ears as well as a puddle of blood on his side. The man was wearing a gray jumpsuit, which was had a short sword stuck to his side, making it bloody. The man had the face of a man in his thirties. His short hair to the side which made nothing to hide his terrified face. He was shivering of fear staring at the figure. It looked like a person wearing the classical Rare Hunter outfit, which consisted of the purple cloak with the Millenium Eye symbol on the top part of the hood and the golden chain close to the neck( for a picture check my profile.) He also looked at the surroundings. The room seemed really old, part of an old building. Due to the darkness, and the only light going in being moonlight that shined from an old broken window on the side. It showed a door, perpendicular to a hallway, that seemed to consist of the same old materials. The person was wearing the Rare Hunter stared at the man, as his eyes glowed red, and his right palm emitted a soft pink glow.

"Dico mihi suum locus.(Tell me their location. )" asked the purpled-cloaked person, in a serious tone, to the man on the floor. The man panicked more.

"I-I-I don't know!" stuttered the man, as he felt weaker from the blood leaving his body. "L-l-et m-m-me go!" The purple-cloaked person expression seem to be the same serious face, although the darkness of the room could have hided an expression of anger. He took a step towards the blood puddle and bent his knees as he got closer. The man who was bleeding seemed to be paralyzed, perhaps too scared to move.

"O castitas lilium(the lily of purity)" said the purple-cloaked person as he pulled a beautiful white water lily. He slowly placed it carefully on the puddle of blood, as it started floating as if it was water. Then, the lily slowly started to turn black, as it started to die, and some of it's petals breaking. "immunda(impure)" The purple-cloaked figure pulled his short sword of the side of the man as more blood came from the body as the puddle grew. The short sword seemed to have ancient runes inscribed in them which glowed a light pink as well. The purpled-cloaked figure stood up and looked at the short sword, as blood slowly dripped from it as it had done from is hand. He stuck out his tongue and licked the blood off with a single swipe of his tongue. He kept the blood in his mouth and spat it out. "Vestri feculentia planto vos nequam. Genitus(Your impurity makes you worthless. Be gone.)" said the purple-cloaked figure man as he threw the dagger at the man's forehead, ending his life. He slowly walked towards the dead man to retrieve his dagger but didn't heard the footsteps from the hallway.

"Stupid Slifer slackers, with their stupid whining." said Dr. Crowler to himself as he started mocking the Slifer Red students. " 'I got wedgied by an obelisk', 'I wanna go home." He amused himself as he walked through the corridor and noticed the opened door. He looked to the side to spot the dead man on the floor, with a puddle of blood to his side and the purple-cloaked figure pulling out the dagger from the man's head. Dr. Crowler let out a gasp as he took a step back. The figure looked to the corridor, his expression remained the same. His eyes glew red again as he examined Dr. Crowler in his fearful fright.

"What is going on? Mr. Stof?" asked Dr. Crowler as he looked at the body. "He's dead!" The purple-cloaked figure examined Dr. Crowler once more.

"Vos es Dr. Crowler , pulvis vos(You are Dr. Crowler, aren't you)" said the purple-cloaked man with a smooth voice. Dr. Crowler took another step back.

"What? I don't speak Latin, or whatever language that is." said Dr. Crowler as he examined the situation. He knew whoever he was dealing with, was capable of killing and because of the purple-cloaked man's calmness, Dr. Crowler could tell that the purple-cloaked man was comfortable with killing. The purple-cloaked man lifted his ring hand showed his palm at Dr. Crowler, signaling a stop. On his palm, he had a snail pattern on his hand, that was outlined by a pink glow. Pink waves seemed to emit from his palm as they seemed to go through the walls.

"We shall meet again, Dr. Crowler." said the Purple-cloaked man, in English as he took a couple of steps back and faded through the wall. Dr. Crowler was speechless. He just ran towards his colleague and checked his vital signs.

"Mr. Stof…" said Dr. Crowler as he checked Mr. Stof's vital signs. There weren't any. "What did he want with you?" Dr. Crowler dug through his outfit and pulled a cell phone. He started dialing the number. "Chancellor Shepard, we have a problem." Then he noticed the black, dead, lily. He slowly touched it and it broke up, leaving the petals to fall on the puddle of blood.


	2. Go Defense!

-1Chapter 2:

"Dr. Crowler, we'll have to discuss later, we have to finish the entrance exams. After the new students have we finished we shall fix this, in the meantime, MAKE SURE NO ONE GOES IN THERE." shouted Chancellor Shepard on the phone. He was standing at the tallest part of where the new students of the academy duel the proctors. There were several of the older duelist watching the new students duel. Some of them laughed as a lot of others just liked duels. There was, however, one particular duel that interested a lot of people. It was in one of the various squares, a duelist and the proctor were dueling. The duelist was skinny, and wearing black long-sleeved shirt. At the end of his sleeves, it showed like if he was wearing something under his shirt, consisting of a series of metal rings. He was also wearing a white small hat, similar to a bucket hat but a tad shorter(you guys know by now that long hair as in for a guy, right?), that covered most of his long hair, but left about 2 inches of hair all around his head. The proctor was wearing white lab coat, with black pants and a blue undershirt. He dark short hair with light blue eyes. However something was different. The duelist hadn't lost any life points at all, while the proctor was at 3300 life points. The field was filled. In the proctor's side of the field, there was muscular purple fiend, with an exoskeleton, that seemed to be very solid on the shoulder blades, and the entire head of the fiend seemed to be composed of bones. The fiend also had blue wings, with green eyes that glowed. The monster was easily recognizable as Summoned Skull. The proctor also had two big brown gorillas easily recognized as Berserk Gorilla. In the duelist's side, he had a sphinx defending him. The sphinx was just like the one in Egypt, in the sense that it was stone, however it seemed to have a lot of details as well colors. Everyone could recognize it as Guardian Sphinx. He also had a light blue tiger that, even though as ferocious as it seemed, kept defending him with it's 2100 defense. Both his monster seemed to emit a yellow glow. This was because of his two Yellow Luster Shield cards.

"Hey 'Lex, how's the duel?" asked Jaden, second year, now a Ra Yellow, student to his friend, Alexis Rhodes. Alexis switched her view from the duel to Jaden.

"It's stale somewhat. The new student seems to be just defending, although he is winning in life points." said Alexis. Jaden scratched the back of his head, showing his dumb look.

"How could he be winning in life points?" asked Jaden.

"Well, if you ram your weaker monster in his insanely high defense monster, you'll take some damage, and that's what had happened." said Alexis.

"Oh…awesome." said Jaden. Alexis shook her head.

"No, not awesome. Look at the proctor, he seems to be pretty angry." said Alexis, and she was right. The proctor was frustrated with all the defense.

"Your tactics don't impress me." said the Proctor angrily as he drew a card. He smiled as he started at the card. "Time I break your defenses, I play Dark Energy!" The proctor played his card as a blue ball with a strange eye-looking symbol appeared and Summoned Skull grabbed it. "This increases my Skull's attack by 300, taking it all the way up to 2800 attack, enough to take down your Soul Tiger. Now, Lightning strike!" The Summoned Skull held his hands together and sent a lightning strike at the Soul Tiger, it let out a roar as it left. As the smoke cleared, the duelist's expression hadn't changed. The Proctor ended his turn.

"I am not here to impress." said the Duelist as he drew. "Just to win, like I am about to do right now." The proctor looked at him in disbelief.

"I hold the power, not you! All you have are defenses, waiting to be broken." said the Proctor, angrily. The duelist grinned.

"Right…I shall offer my Guardian Sphinx as a tribute in order to special summon a monster with a defense that is unstoppable! I summon Exxod, Master of the Guard!" said the Duelist as the Sphinx was replaced by a massive monster. It had humongous muscles, as well as yellow skin, as well as a strange gold armor that covered his chest, and down to his knees, as well as his shoulders. His head seemed to be similar to that of Exodia's, as well as he also had a strange portal, with the outline of it surrounded by gold. As the monster entered the field through the said portal, the look on the proctor's face was quite the look, but he was no fool.

"That may be a big monster, but it won't do anything in defense mode." said Proctor, smiling. The duelist smile as well.

"Who says anything about playing it in defense mode? This is going in attack mode!" said the Duelist. The proctor looked shock.

"But why? It only has 0 attack, and with 4600 defense due to your two Yellow Luster Shield's, it be just foolish not to place it in def." said the proctor confused.

"Let me show you. I play Shield & Sword!" said The Duelist as the proctor looked like he was about to faint, as the defense and attack of all the monsters switched, leaving his Summoned Skull at 1500 attack, and leaving his Berserk Gorilla at 1000 attack, while Exxod was at 4600 attack power.

"Oh uh…" said the Proctor, as the duelist's grin was enlarged.

"Oh yes. Exxod, smite him!" said The Duelist as Exxod let out a giant blast of power at Berserk Gorrila. It was so powerful that even hit the proctor, knocking him against a wall.

Duelist: 4000

Proctor: 0

"Whoa, he just defeated the proctor without losing a single life point." said Jaden, impressed.

"Well, I will be sure to duel him, at least once." said Alexis, smiling. The proctors started talking between themselves.

"He would make a good obelisk." said one of the proctors.

"I don't know, his dueling style seems a bit weak, I say Ra Yellow." said another of the proctors. The others nodded. The proctor who lost was extremely angry. He stormed off to the Proctor's lounge and slammed the door. It was a simple room really. It was small and plain, with a round table and a soda machine. He sigh as he walked towards the soda machine and put some money. As he placed some money he didn't notice a figure fazing through the door. This figure had the classical Rare Hunter cloak, and looked exactly like the figure who attacked Mr. Stof. The figure kept his same expressionless face as he looked Mr. Stof getting his soda. Mr. Stof took a sip then turned to see the figure. He was surprised and moved back against the soda machine.  
"Um…hello?" asked the Protor as he looked at the figure. The figure lifted his hand and pink sound waves came from his hand…

"Boo!" shouted Jasmine from behind Alexis, surprising her. She jumped a bit towards Jaden and held her so she wouldn't fall.

"Careful, Alexis." said Jaden as he held her. She blushed as she took a step back. Jasmine sigh.

"Right, so what did I miss? Any failures among the bunch?" asked Jasmine, in a cheery tone. Alexis and Jaden stared at her.

"Umm no. Just one frustrated proctor. He had to play this defense deck, the match just ended, see there's the guy." said Alexis as she pointed towards the duelist. Jasmine got closer to edge to see the guy.

"Wow! He's cute." said Jasmine. Alexis and Jaden got the anime sweat drop in the back of their head. "Look cool too."

"The guy plays a defense deck…since when are those cool?" asked Jaden as he scratched the back of his head.

"I think she is referring to his appearance." said Alexis, laughing a bit. She took another look at the duelist, and noticed his style of clothing seemed a bit out of place. "He does look exotic." Jaden stared at him and strained his eyes.

"Eh, whatever you say." said Jaden, as he looked at them. He looked at a big clock on the wall. "I gotta go meet up with Syrus." said Jaden as he waved them good bye as he left.

"You scared him off." said Jasmine. She gave her a thumbs up. Alexis glared at her.

"…right." said Alexis. "It's not like a monster or anything."

"Uh huh. So do you think he'll be Ra Yellow or Obelisk blue?" asked Jasmine. Alexis considered it.

"Well the proctors aren't a big fan of defense deck so probably Ra Yellow." said Alexis.

"That sucks, oh well." said Jasmine, then announcement was heard.

"All student must immediatly leave the area and report to their repetitive dorms. If there were any untested student, then you must return home. That is all." said a voice in the intercoms.

"I wonder what could be happening…" said Alexis curiously.


	3. Blood and Funnyness

-1Chapter 3:

"Dear god…" said Chancellor Shepard as he stared into the proctor's lounge. On the wall they were facing, from the top left corner a big trace of blood was there, going down diagonally to the right, leading down to a dead proctor, with blood coming from his ears, as well as several puddles of blood, which seemed to have come from his body. One could assume by the width of trail of blood on the wall that the proctor was literally dragged from the top right corner, pressing hardly against the wall, making the blood on his back be on the wall. Chancellor Shepard walked towards the proctor and examined him. As he did, one of the proctor walked up to Chancellor Shepard. "Should we call a doctor?" asked the Proctor as he stared at the dead proctor.

"I think a priest would be more suited." said Chancellor Shepard with a frown. He sigh as bent on his knees and examined the dead body closer. He noticed a slash on the body which was where the biggest blood puddle was. He also noticed on the biggest blood puddle, a dead, black lily was floating. "What's with the lily's? And why do they always bleed from their ear? That's about the most unlikely spot to stroke." Shepard whispered.

"What was that sir?" asked the proctor next to him.

"Nothing, we just need to hire a crime solver, to find who's responsible for this." said Chancellor Shepard. "Did you make sure everyone evacuated this area?"

"Yes sir, all the students should be going to their respective their dorms." said the proctor.

While it was true that they had left the area, the students weren't dumb. They could figure out if class doesn't start for an hour, then they don't need to be in their dorms till such time. Thus, everyone was socializing outside. As Alexis and Jasmine walked outside they stared at the sky. It was bright blue with the sun shining. Although, in this distance, some clouds could be seen.

"Pretty day. Huh?" said Alexis as she looked up.

"Yeah, let's go talk to the new duelist." said Jasmine. Alexis sighed and looked at her.

"Why are you so interested in him?" asked Alexis as they started looking for the duelist.

"He looks cool." said Jasmine as she spotted him, and started walking towards him,Alexis following. However, to their surprise, he seemed to be already talking to a Ra Yellow girl. She had a blondish brown hair tied in a pony tail with two long parts of hair in the front, similar to Jaden's, with a slim body. She seemed to be very excited while the duelist kept his same expressionless face. As Alexis and Jasmine approached both of them they looked at them. The duelist and the Ra Yellow girl shifted their gaze to Obelisk girls.

"Alexis! Hey!" said the Ra Yellow girl, happy. The other duelist looked at them. From the bottom to the top. He seemed to gaze more at Jasmine, but with the quickness of his gaze, it was unclear.

"Hey Christy." said Alexis, and Jasmine. They both turned their gaze at the new duelist.

"Hi, my name is Alexis." said Alexis, then pointed at Jasmine. "And that's Jasmine." Jasmine waved at him, friendly. The duelist gazes at them.

"Greetings. I'm Izual. " said the duelist as he extended his at the girls, offering a hand shake. They both shook his hand.

"So do you guys know what happened?" asked Alexis. Christy shrugged.

"Beats me." said Christy.

"It could be something involving an official, such as a proctor or teacher." said Izual. They all looked at him.  
"What makes you say that?" asked Jasmine. Izual kept his face expressionless.

"Well, they evacuated all students, so it must be something to be discussed with officials." said Izual. They all exchanged glances.

"So what dorm did you end in?" asked Jasmine.

"Ra Yellow. I was expecting Obelisk blue, but Ra Yellow is good." said Izual.  
"It's really good! That way you are in my dorm!" said Christy, peppy as always.

"That's good." said Izual. "So how are the classes here?"

"They are pretty good." said Christy.  
"Yeah, they put all dorms together in the same big class, works really nice." said Jasmine, cheerfully. Then Jaden jumped on Christy's back.

"Hey!" shouted Jaden on Christy's back. Christy groaned as she struggled to keep him up then fell to the ground, face first. "Um…oops." Christ growled as she knocked him off. Alexis and Jasmine laughed while Izual seemed to let out some air, almost a chuckle but not quite so. Christy stood up and glared at Jaden. He just smiled at her, and she sighed. She smiled again.

"Crazy idiot." said Christy as she helped him up. Syrus came and smiled.

"C'mon guys, they are starting class earlier due to what happened earlier." said Syrus.  
"Do you know what happened?" asked Alexis, curiously.

"Something about proctor, c'mon let's go." said Syrus as he started walking towards. They all followed him to Dr. Crowler's class. As the students entered their respective seats, Izual stood out, wondering where to sit. As less and less students remain standing, it started getting more awkward but Izual remained expression. Dr. Crowler stayed from his teaching place and noticed the new Ra student just standing there.  
"Hey!" said Crowler, as he looked at the student, then pulled a paper from his pocket that had the name of the new students. "Izual, is it? Yeah, sit next to Jasmine." Jasmine smile as Izual walked towards his seat and Crowler started lecturing. He looked to his side and noticed Jasmine, and looked at her. She looked at him back, tilting her head to the side.

"I like your hair style. It's pretty." said Izual. She laughed a bit.

"Thanks, I like your hat." said Jasmine. Izual moved his hand to his hat.

"It's not that great." said Izual.

"Yeah it is." said Jasmine as she moved Izual's hand off his hat and took it.

"Hey give it back" said Izual, his face showing finally showing some expression. Jasmine smiled as she pulled the farther.

"C'mon try and get it." said Jasmine, playfully. Izual moved closer to Jasmine to take the hat. He got closer but she extended her hand to the side. "Too slow." Izual groaned. He tilted his chair to the side to grab a quick speed bonus which allowed to him catch his hat. However, as Izual inclined to the side, the chair slipped, making Izual's head fall on Jasmine's lap as the chair hit the floor, making a loud. Everybody turned to look at them while Dr. Crowler stopped his lecture.

"Do you require assistance, Mr. Izual? If you continue this, then I will be forced to give you a DETENTION!" shouted Dr. Crowler as Izual quickly recovered, taking a look at the deeply red Jasmine. He picked up the chair and sat down and let out a sigh.

Meanwhile, the rare-hunter cloaked figure sat on the top of a cliff of the island. He threw a rock and it took some time as it fell and splashed the water. He pulled out a beautiful pink water lily and looked at it. A tear fell from his eye as it slowly fell on the water lily, splashing some of water that was already on the lily. "I won't fail…" said the figure as he let the lily fall, slowly falling towards the water, falling perfectly on the thrashing sea. The waves crashed against the lily, knocking it against the wall and crushing it as the rare-hunter stood up and left.


	4. Awkwardness

Chapter 4: Awkwardness

The class seemed to go smooth after that incident, with Izual and Jasmine avoiding glances.

"…in conclusion, that's why purple lipstick is better than red, as well why Fusion Gate is more efficient that Polymerization, in most cases." said Dr. Crowler as he finished his lecture. "You are all dismissed." Izual stood up and as Jasmine was about to say something he blended in with the sea of students leaving the room. Izual sigh, but then realized the mistake he had made. He had no idea where he was going. He merely walked in the waves of students as they exited. He walked through courtyard, wondering where to go till he noticed Jaden, Syrus and Christy apparently playing some sort of game. It looked like Jaden was throwing a small box over Christy to Syrus. Christy seemed to follow the box as Syrus caught it, who threw it back at the Jaden.

"This is harder than I thought…" said Christy as she jumped high to try and get the box but couldn't.

"That's monkey in the middle for ya." said Jaden as he threw it over Christy's head again.

"Grr…" said Christy as she prepared herself. Syrus smiled as he readied himself to throw, but this time difference.

"Down low, Jay!" shouted Syrus as he threw the box, aiming under Christy's leg. Christy moved quickly and bend over catch it. Jaden turned red as he saw under her skirt. Syrus noticed Jaden's blushing, and noticed Christy's confused faced, he tried to mouthed "stop blushing" to Jaden, while Izual observed it all. He smiled a bit. He walked to Christy offered her a hand.

"Need some help?" asked Izual. Christy smiled as she took his hand, and he pulled her to her feet. "You okay?' He let go of her hand.

"Yeah, but now it's Syrus turn to be the monkey in the middle! Yes!" shouted Christy happily, as Syrus groaned, and walked to the middle while Jaden mouthed "Thanks." to Izual.

"Do you guys know where I am supposed to go?" asked Izual, lost. Jaden walked to him.

"Do you have a slip or something?" asked Jaden. Izual searched through his pocket and pulled yellow slip. Jaden took it and read it. He smiled.

"Looks like you will be bunking with me and Sy!" said Jaden.  
"That's great, so where exactly do I go?" asked Izual. Jaden looked towards the sky and noticed the sun starting to set.

"Hey Jay, aren't we supposed to get to the dorms before the sun sets? Something about them looking around for something missing." said Syrus. Jaden switched his glance from the sky to Syrus. Chrisy nodded

"I think so…" said Jaden as he scratched his head.  
"Yeah, I heard about that too. Well I guess I'll see you all tomorrow?" said Christy as she left towards the female side of the Ra Yellow dorm while Jaden, and the rest went to their place. Meanwhile, Alexis, Mindy, and Jasmine were walking towards the Obelisk dorm. Jasmine had spotted Izual talking with Christy and the rest and kept looking, ignoring the idle conversation between the 3 girls.

"…I know, right? What do you think, Jasmine?" asked Mindy. "Jasmine? Hello?" Jasmine seemed to snap out of her trance and looked at Mindy.

"What?" asked Jasmine.

"Are you paying attention?" asked Mindy.

"Err…not really." said Jasmine. Mindy got the anime sweat drop thing on the back of her head. Alexis smiled.

"She's too busy thinking about the new guy." said Alexis. Jasmine looked at her.

"No I wasn't." said Jasmine, trying to deny it.

"We saw you at class today, that's not your usual self, you were more flirty today." said Mindy. Jasmine sigh.  
"You are all crazy, we should hit the hot springs today." said Jasmine, trying to change the subject.

"You sure? Since today is the first day, most of the Ra girls will be allowed." said Alexis. Mindy and Jasmine groaned.

"We will go late at night, that way we will have all to ourselves." said Mindy.

"Hey! Great idea!"

Izual looked at the inside of the room. It had a pair of bunk beds, with a big table in the middle. The floor seemed to be a fine white rug, spotless. There was a table to one side, and a bathroom on the other.

"You can have the bed to the right." said Jaden. Izual went to the bed on the right and noticed his bag was there. "Thank you."

"No problem." said Jaden as he gave him a thumbs up.

"We should probably get some shut eye. You only had to stand 1 class today, tomorrow it will be worse. Besides we can't do anything for a while until they stop doing whatever they are doing." said Syrus, as he went to the bottom bunk and lied down.  
"I guess…" said Izual as he lied down on the bottom bunk to the right.

"Okay, Night." said Jaden as they all fell asleep.

…

Izual woke up. He looked at the alarm clock on the table. It read 11 PM. He sigh. _I knew sleeping early wasn't a good idea. _thought Izual as he sat up. Then he felt his palm glow a fade pink. His eyes widened. _He's near._ he thought as he stood up. He slowly walked in the same clothe he wore yesterday towards the door. He opened and silently left the room, but as he closed it, Jaden woke up.

"Giant marshmallow?" said Jaden, sleepily as he stopped chewing on his pillow and noticed the door. He looked to the right and notice Izual was gone. He sighed. _Might as well follow him before he gets into more trouble._ thought Jaden as he left the room.

Meanwhile, Alexis, Jasmine, and Mindy walked towards the hot springs, with their towels on. It was a room without a roof. They slowly enter the springs with their towels off, all details blocked by a camera shot of the moon(A/N: That's too avoid getting graphical, for all you pervert folks…hmm…most of my reviewers, so I am expecting to get flame J ) They all sank in the hot water for a second then came up to relax. They all let a sigh of relief. "You were right Mindy, this was a great idea. No one around!" said Jasmine, happily. Then some bubbles started coming from the water. "What the?" Then Christy pop up, grinning, and with her eyes close. She opened them and look at the other girls.

"Hey, I didn't expect company." said Christy as she smiled at them. They all sigh.

"Well, at least it's Christy and not someone else." said Alexis. They nodded. "So what's up Christy?"

"Just relaxing, making sure I get the best out of the hot springs I won't get to use" said Christy, while the others laughed.

Meanwhile, Izual moved about, slowly moved around as his palms glow a bit more. Jaden slowly followed him. He seemed to stop at a lake. He looked at the end of the lake, there seemed to some buildings. Jaden kept hidden behind a tree.  
"Hey…Jaden, is it? What are those buildings?" asked Izual, without turning back. Jaden got the anime droplet on the back of his head.

"How'd you know I was here?" asked Jaden as he came out of his hiding spot.

"I noticed you half-way here, so what are those buildings?" asked Izual.

"Those are the Obelisk girl dormitory." said Jaden. "Why?"

"We need to get there." said Izual. "Anyway to get there?"

"Well, there's boat there." said Jaden as he pointed to the boat. "But why?"

"I have a feeling I know who's responsible for the strange events. If you wanna find out, just come with me." said Izual as he got to the boat.

"Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this." said Jaden as he got on the boat with Izual, and helped row his way to the buildings.

"So how'd you meet your girlfriend?" asked Izual as he paddled. Jaden stopped paddling.

"Say wha-?" asked Jaden.

"You know, Christy?" said Izual.  
"She is not my girlfriend, just a friend." said Jaden.

"Really? That's surprising." said Izual. Jaden looked at him.

"Yeah…I mean, I have been thinking…" said Jaden. Izual looked at him.

"You should go for it." said Izual as he paddled.

"You think so? Perhaps…" said Jaden then the boat hit land.

"Do it later, we have work to do." said Izual as he got out and felt his palm glow even more pink.

"So why is your hand glowing pink?" asked Jaden.

"I will explain to you to tomorrow, assuming nothing bad happens." said Izual as they started walking on land then they get to the building and noticed a door. His palm glowed a strong glow.

"Okay, he is here." said Izual.

"Who is?" asked Jaden, still confused about it all.

"Who has caused all the confusion around and why they had to stop the testing today." said Izual. "Now what ever lies behind this door, could be very dangerous. I want you to brace yourself, and prepare to attack if need be." Jaden looked a tad worried but then smiled as he prepared himself.

"Okay I am ready." said Jaden.

"Okay…" said Izual as he slowly place his hand on the door handle. He slowly turned it, then pushed both doors open as Jaden jumped screaming "Hiya!" in a karate style. He moved forward then looked Christy, Alexis, Jasmine and Mindy skinny-dipping, however most of their body covered by water( A/N: Read the A/n before this). They all turned around to look at Izual and Jaden.

"Izual?" asked Jasmine, almost shocked.

"Jaden?" said Christy.

"Oh my god" said all the girls as the same time, Jaden and Izual started turning.

"Umm…Jaden…I am not into the popular lingo, how do you say "wrong" in the cool way?" asked Izual, as he gulped turned redder by the second.  
"Wait, I been studying this." said Jaden as he pulled book from his pocket with the cover **Lingo for Dummies. **"Found it…You stone cold trippin', fool."  
"Thank you." said Izual. Then came an awkward silence. Then, Mindy broke the silence.

"You perverts!" shouted Mindy. Izual and Jaden sweat dropped. Then Christy joined her.

"Jaden! How could you?" shouted Christy, mad.

"I thought you were better than this, Izual." said Jasmine. Jaden seemed the first one to realize too run. He went to grab Izual then try to drag him but he was to heavy and just fell.

"Why are you so heavy?' asked Jaden. Then the girls seemed to be majorly mad.

"It's a chain mail just drag me out of here!" said Izual as he got dragged by Jaden, while the girls scream. As they got on the boat they started paddling. Meanwhile, on the roof where the obelisk girls sleep, the rare-hunter-cloaked figure started laughing. "Who says I don't have a good sense of humor? We are even now, Izual." said the figure as he kept laughing.

A/N: No flames from my female reviewers, please!


	5. Shade vs Izual

-Chapter 5:

A/N: Only ONE review? That's depressing...atleast I know my true fans.

The next day was awkward for Izual and Jaden. As Izual sat, barely paying attention to Dr. Crowler, mumbling about Chaos Sorcerer was good, he looked at Jasmine, who had ignored him, at least in his point of view. They hadn't talked since the incident. Christy was in a similar position, except kept asking for forgiveness, unlike Izual who said nothing. The days seemed to go like this. It had appeared as if the murdering of the Proctor, as well as Mr. Stof, had been dealt with as the killer seemed to have vanished, not causing a single fight. The relationship between Jaden and Christy had seemed to be back to normal, despite Christy's still being somewhat mad about the incident. Meanwhile, Izual and Jasmine just stopped talking. Other than the unnecessary, they seem to barely talk. The day seemed to close to ending, as the big blazing sun seemed to be inches away from touching the horizon. Jaden and Izual seemed to be talking.

"Hey, did you get the answer to number #1?" asked Jaden, confused. Izual looked up from his study.  
"Umm…it's Snatch Steal." said Izual. Jaden seemed to scribble something on the paper then, it was quiet for a few seconds.

"Hey, did you get the answer to number #2?" asked Jaden. Izual glared at Jaden. "What?"

"Just…never mind." said Izual. He sigh as he stood up.

"You okay?" asked Jaden as he looked at him.  
"Yeah, I-" said Izual, as he got interrupted by a panting Syrus.  
"Hey guys! Great news! They are making a talent show so the new guys will get to know each other better." said Syrus, in between pants.

"How's that great news?" asked Izual, as he rested against a tree.  
"Yeah, Sy. Doesn't seem like anything special…" said Jaden.

"Sure it does! You can say whatever you wanted to say Christy that way. It's probably the best way to get out a message you know?" said Syrus.

"Hey that's not a bad idea!" said Jaden, as he stroke his chin, trying to look philosophical. Izual groaned.  
"I am going for a walk." said Izual and he left to the forest.  
"What's up with him?" asked Syrus. Jaden shrugged as Izual walked through the forest. Izual walked through forest looking down. He sigh.  
"Why am I feeling like this?" he asked himself as he rested against a tree. Then he noticed a movement on the trees. Izual looked around. "Who's there?" Then he noticed his perception started getting distorted. The once, beautiful forest seemed to be changing into a darker forest. The once, lively trees seemed to be dead for all around as it looked like Izual had warped.

"Izzy, why the sad face?" said a voice as the rare-hunter-cloaked figure showed up.

"Shade, nice of you to join me here." said Izual, looked at the cloaked figure. "So have you found them?"

"If I had, you would know. Specially due to…well you know." said Shade. "So do you know their location?"

"Somewhat, but I am not telling you." said Izual. Shade chuckled.

"I figured as so. Must I get their location out of you?" asked Shade, as more cloaked figures appeared looking identical to Shade. They surrounded Izual.

"Go for it." said Izual as he tried to run away, but his chain mail slowed him down. The many Shade's seemed to go into the dead forest and threw knifes. Izual ran and tripped. The knives went over him, missing him.

"You always seemed to get lucky." said Shade's voice around. Then, a lot of knives from the forest seemed to come, hitting Izual. It seemed about ten out of the fifty knives that came hit metal rings of his chain, while the others seemed to pierce his skin. He let out a shout as he felt the knives pierce him. Izual felt the pain, as he slowly stood up. He placed his left hand on his right shoulder, letting his right arm dangle in front of him. He looked at the forest.

"It's my turn." said Izual, as his eyes glowed red. "I got trouble on my mind…" Izual noticed Shade appeared and running with a small sword towards him. "I am refusing to lose…" Then he before Shade slashed he uttered the words "But I still got to find…someone to abuse." Then as Shade slashed him he seemed to slashed in half. The two half's of Izual seemed to reform, creating two Izuals. "I'm gonna run spread the news" said the Izual as they pulled their own short swords. "Help say the word. Jump the hell back." said the Izual as they were about slash Shade and he jumped back. "And act like your heard."

"Izzy, I see you learned something." said Shade as he moved back. "Your illusions are quite good." Then Shade pulled a sword then went straight for the Izuals. They both placed their hands facing Shade as a sound wave came. As it did, one of the Izuals disappeared as the forest slowly started to return to the once beautiful forest it was. The incoming Shade disappeared, as well as the knives on Izual. He looked at ten knives left over. He realized forty of the knives were fake, but the ten that had hit his rings, were real. He sigh.

"You okay?" asked a voice from behind Izual. Izual jumped forward, as his eyes stopped glowing and he turned around. It was Jasmine.  
"Jasmine? Umm…yeah…what are you doing here?" asked Izual, a tad nervous.

"Just heard something, how about you, pervert?" asked Jasmine. Izual groaned.  
"It was an accident." said Izual, as he sigh as sat down, against a tree.

"Uh huh." said Jasmine as she glared at him.

"I am serious…please Jasmine, forgive me? I will do anything?" offered Izual. He was somewhat desperate. She looked at him.  
"Anything?" asked Jasmine.  
"Anything." responded Izual. Jasmine smiled a bit as she sat next to him, looking at sky, slowly darkening, as the sun barely touched the horizon.

"I just want.. To be able to talk, you know?" asked Jasmine. Izual was confused.

"What do you mean?" asked Izual. Jasmine sighed.

"We haven't talked at all this week." said Jasmine as she looked up. "Class is boring with just Crowler babbling, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I am starting to get you." said Izual as he thought about it.

"Izual, I…" started to say Jasmine. Izual stopped his thinking then looked at Jasmine.  
"What?" asked Izual. She smiled.

"Never mind." she said as she stood up. "I have to go finish Crowler's homework. Bye!" She ran off in the forest. Izual sigh. From the ground in front of Izual, about couple of feet, Shade came up. He sat down, Indian style, in front of Izual.

"You have good taste." said Shade, grinning. Izual turned a bit red as he saw Shade.

"I will give a no comment on that. Thanks for not doing anything stupid at that time." said Izual.  
"Hey, no problem." said Shade.

"You do realize we are still enemies, right?" asked Izual, smiling as he rested against the tree.

"That seems what fate has dealt us. One call only hope once this ordeal is done…" said Shade.

"Things will go back to normal?" finished Izual for Shade.

"Yeah…" said Shade. "It's time I take my leave…"

"Yeah me too." said Izual as he stood up and stared at Shade. "You do know, we'll have to fight some time." Shade stood up.

"And when it comes, we'll be ready." said Shade as he phased through the ground. Izual decided to walk towards the room. As he entered he saw Jaden dressed in a sailor suit, the ones that captain wears.

"Why are you wearing that?" asked Izual.

"I can't tell you. It's part of my act." said Jaden. Izual just looked at him blankly.

"I think I will take part of it too." said Izual as he took off his shirt, revealing his chain mail, and another shirt under. He removed the chain mail and folded it carefully.

"Cool, what are you gonna do?" asked Jaden.  
"You will see…when is it again?" asked Izual.

"Tomorrow, at night." said Jaden.

"Ah yes, Friday." said Izual.

"Well I gotta go practice, later." said Jaden as he left in a navigator.

"Crazy kid." said Izual as he fell asleep.


	6. Talent Show

-1Chapter 6:

A/N: It would be nice if I got more reviews :( Not even Hawkee comes :( For those of you who want to hear what the people sing, just give me PM. They are not my work.

It was early in the morning about 10 minutes class before start. While most students were sleeping, due to being Friday and all, a few were already in class, waiting for the bell to ring, most of those sleeping. Jasmine slowly walked in, yawning a bit. As she walked to her seat, she noticed Izual was sitting on a chair that rested against the wall, with the two front legs in front being levitated in the air, of the desk behind it. He seemed to be fast asleep, as he breathed and exhaled, which moved his hair bit hitting his white bucket head hat. She smiled.

"Sleepy head." said Jasmine as she looked at him. She slowly took off his hat, and wore it. He moved a bit, almost as if a reflex. This made him stumble, the leg of the back row moved to the side and chair to the floor and loud BANG noise. Izual opened his eyes and uttered a single word.

"Ouch." He looked up to see Jasmine. "Jasmine?" She was laughing as she offered her hand to help him up. He slowly took it and stood up. Then he noticed her wearing his hat."Hey! That's my hat!" Jasmine laughed.

"I like it." said Jasmine, "can't I wear it?" Izual looked at her.

"but it's my hat…" said Izual. Jasmine.  
"C'mon, let me wear it. You still owe me, you pervert. " said Jasmine. Izual groaned.

"I thought we were past that?" said Izual, not realizing people getting into the class, and Dr. Crowler coming in.

"We are, you pervert." said Jasmine, smiling as she sat down.

"Then why are you still calling me pervert?" asked Izual

"Well, it's 'cause." said Jasmine but she was interrupted as the Dr. Crowler started talking.

"Class! Today we will be doing a team assignment, so get in teams." said Dr. Crowler. The students as smiled as they got in teams.

"Hey, I'm gonna work with 'Lexi and Mindy. It's some pact we did." said Jasmine. Izual was disappointed but didn't show it.

"Okay." he said as Jasmine left he sigh. He went to work with Jaden, Syrus, and Bastion. The work seemed to drag on.

"So did you finish your…whatever you are doing for the talent show?" asked Izual to Jaden.

"Yeah, it's short but to the point." said Jaden, grinning.

"In a sailor suit?" asked Izual. Jaden immediately covered Izual's mouth.

"Shush! It's a secret!" said Jaden. Bastion and Syrus exchanged glances.

"Are you going to be in it?" asked Syrus to Izual.

"Yeah." said Izual.

"What are you going to do? I haven't even seen you practice." said Syrus. Izual stopped his work.

"If I didn't know what I am gonna do by heart, then I would be ashamed of myself." said Izual, then he continued working.

"I am going to be in it." said Bastion. They all looked at him. "I think you will find my act quite the act."

"Right…we should finish this." said Syrus.

…

It was late, and it Talent Show night! The crowd was murmuring, wondering what the acts were going to be. It seemed a young lady, red hair with a slender body appeared at the stage, which was Dr. Crowler's room, holding the microphone.  
"Hi! Are you all ready to seem some talent?" asked the lady.

"Yeah!" responded the students. Then the curtains behind her started opening, revealing Bastion wearing a black hood, like that of the gangsters, with a pair of black pants. The big screen behind him turned on, showing a closer camera shot of him. He seemed to have a grin as a beat came up.  
"One, two, three and to the four, you duelers think you are rich, but you are really dirt poor." said Bastion singing, moving his head up and down. "You go broke buying cool card sleeves, I never go broke I'm like Yu-gi Moto. I use hundred dollar bills, to wipe my cards, I hose my ladies down with unleaded gas. Duelers got cards with cool signs on the back, I can't fit one on my cards, for they made of gold." Everyone seemed to be shocked at Bastion's performance but everyone seemed to be loving. He kept rapping and as he ended every was screaming. It was quite the show. Christy turned to Jasmine.  
"Who knew he had it in him?" said Christy. Jasmine shrugged.

"That was good though. I wonder who's next." said Jasmine, then they saw other people come up and do weird acts. Ranging from juggling, to eating fire. Then came Izual, wearing the same clothing, nothing special. He got to the mike.

"I am not here to win but just to share something with all of you, about my life. This songs means a lot to me, and I hope it does the same to you." said Izual, as he prepared himself.

"I wonder what he is gonna sing…" said Jasmine to Christy. Christy shrugged. From Izual's palm, pink sound waves came, and hit the crowd without them realizing it as he started to sing. He didn't notice Shade's head, and hands fading from the cealing.

"This is something important…" he said, apparently to himself. As pink sound waves from his came and reinforced the sound waves from Izual showing a great illusion as he sang.

"Os iusti meditabitur sapient am(Wisdom shall flow from the mouth of the Just.)" sang Izual, as from the combined sound waves showed an illusion of a younger Izual, about one or two years younger, bleeding from his arms. He seemed to be in a room made of stone, with strange symbols. There was an altar on the side, glowing bright pink. Izual was saying something but nothing came out. "Et lingua eius loquetur indicium(And from his tounge, he shall speak judgment)" said Izual as a pink blast came from the altar at Izual, but Izual jumped and fell to the ground. The altar seemed to be charging but then another figure appeared, and grabbed Izual from his strange robe he was wearing. It was Shade pulling him. He seemed to speaking, but no sound came from the illusion. "Beatus vir qui suffert temptation,(Blessed is the man who endureth temptation,)" said Izual as Shade placed his younger self on his should and ran, through a hallway in the room. Another pink blast came but they manage to jump to a hallway perpendicular to the one they were in. Shade kept screaming at Izual, but no sound came as Izual stood up, still bleeding. They noticed a pink glow kept coming from the hallway they had been in, and they started to run."Quoniqm cum probates fuerit accipient coronam vitae(for once he has done so, he shall receive the crown of life)" said Izual, as his younger self and Shade ran. They seemed about to get to the last room, but then pink blast came. "Kyrie, ignis divine, eleison(Oh Lord, Fire Divine, have mercy!)" said Izual, as before the pink blast came, Shade pushed Izual against the wall, making himself take the entire blast, which took him all the way to other room and against the wall.It seemed Izual's hand were caught in the blast, but they seemed harm. "O quam, sancta, quam serena, quam benigma, quam amoena(Oh, How Holy! How Serene! How Kind! How Pleasant!) The Izual in the illusion rushed to Shade, and checked him. He seemed to be fine, except the crashing in to the wall part. Then he noticed in his palms he had one beautifully pink lily, and Izual turned pale. "O castitatis lilium(The Lily of purity.)" sang Izual, as he finished the song and the illusion faded. Everybody started clapping, some with tears in their eyes, and some wondering what was going out.

"Well…that was something!" said the announcer as Izual left the stage.

"Did you see that? It was like a movie." whispered Jasmine to Christy.  
"Weird thing…we'll have to ask him about it later." said Christy, and Jasmine nodded. Then they saw Jaden coming, in a sea Captain suit, followed by Chazz, Syrus, and two other students dressed in Sailor suits.

"Oh, this HAS to be good." said Christy to Jasmine. Jaden went to the mike.  
"Hey! This is dedicated to a friend of mine. This is for you, Christy." said Jaden smiling as the music started playing. "It's a little short but here we go." he said then he position himself as the "sailors" positioned himself in rows of two, diagonally, going perpendicular with Jaden in the middle.(A/N: **Bold ** Jaden, _Italics_ "Sailors")

"**I am the greatest captain of the Queen's Navy!" **

"_And your record will stand as proof" said the "sailors"_

"**Be it galley or a freighter, I'm an expert navigator"**

"_And you're also a world class poof"_

"**My manner quite effete **

**Is mistaken on the street**

**For a sailor who can pirouette on cue**

**Well, despite your point of view**

**I can thrill a girl or twooooo" **Jaden went on a high pitch, then dropped it as he continued.

**But I'd rather get it on with you**"

"_Ha ha ha_

It seemed everyone in the stage was clapping as well as laughing, but the good laughing. Christy was speechless.

"You do realize he just sang a homosexual sailor song as some weird serenade, right?" said Jasmine. Christy smiled.

"That's my Jaden."


	7. Afterparty

-1Chapter 7: Afterparty

A/N: Sorry for the late update, AP has been dominating my life…pathetic I know.

As the students got up to leave the stage, all the people who had present were behind stage. Izual, Jaden, and Bastion started walking outside towards the crowd.

"Bastion! Man! I can't describe your presentation!" said Jaden, excited. Bastion smiled.

"Well, it's something I had wanted to try out." said Bastion as they merged with the crowd of people. "I liked yours Jaden… why a homosexual song though?"

"Why not? It's pure genius." said Jaden, grinning at Bastion as they walked.

"How is it genius?" asked Izual, from Jaden's other side.

"C'mon guys, think. You all know what the word homosexual means, right?" asked Jaden. Izual and Bastion exchanged glances.

"Um…remind us again." said Izual.

"Well, I broke it up. I recalled Homo was from the word Homo Sapiens sapiens, which means smart human. Then sex means gender, duh." said Jaden, then he stroke his chin. "I wasn't sure what the prefix "ual" meant, but I figured it was just added to make it sound cooler. So I figured, smart person about genders, so I thought. 'Hey, a person who can get women must be smart at genders.' So , doing two plus two and I got a homosexual song! Genius, huh?" said Jaden. Izual and Bastion looked in disbelief.

"umm….yeah…" said Izual,

"So what was up with your presentation, Izual?" asked Jaden. Izual looked at him.

"What do you mean?" asked Izual.

"I know I saw some sort of strange movie. You were there, and some other guy was there." said Jaden. Then Izual understood.

"I guess I should explain…" said Izual. "The reason why I'm here is not to become a master duelist."

"What?" asked Jaden. "Then why are you here?"

"Well, you see… what you saw was the moments before my life was wrecked." said Izual, in a casual tone.

"I'm very confused." said Jaden, as he scratched the back of his head.

"You see, Shade, the person you saw ther with me, and I are part of this group who stops this demon from out."  
"Demon?" asked Bastion.  
"Yes, demon. Her name is Lilith." said Izual. Then Bastion spoke up.

"Wait, I recognized that name. Isn't she a demon from Mesopotamian times, that attacked male children?" asked Bastion.

"Yes, she did that when she was weaker. She was eventually sealed away. A group was made to keep her locked away, and they have succeeded." said Izual. "There have been a few instances where she has escaped, but we usually stop her."

"Ah, she is an succubi, is she not?" asked Bastion.

"Well, actually, no. She posses some of the traits, but that's just her personality. She doesn't gain any energy from doing…those things." said Izual.

"So what exactly does she want with us here?" asked Jaden, still confused.

"Well, what you saw in the vision was her trying to get out. It seems Shade and I had triggered a power source that gave her enough power to come out, in a different form. Lilith, in her nature, uses sound waves to affect the mind. That's why everyone in the cult had this installed." said Izual as he pointed to the strange snail like swirly pattern in his hands.

"And those are…?" asked Jaden

"They can do certain sound waves of certain frequency. You see, there are twelve cranial nerves in the human body. One of the most intriguing one is the eight Cranial nerve, the Vestibulocochlear nerve. It's located in the ear, and it's responsible for sensing sound, rotation, and gravity. It's VERY essential for balance and movement. (A/N: Nifty fact, eh?) What Lilith does is send sound waves with different frequency to mess up the nerve thus produce illusions in your head, as well make you feel lost. What I have here…" said Izual as he pointed to his hand. "allows me to do the same thing. However, if I can out do her waves, I'll be fine. However, when Shade took some of Lilith's powers, his waves became A LOT stronger to the point where he can disrupt the very essence of matter, and actually phase through it. Long periods of times, like hours, of those waves can make ear bleeds and perhaps permanently leave the person without balance." _Bleeding from the ears? Why does that sound familiar? _thought Bastion.

"Very interesting, but you still haven't told what she wants from us." said Bastion.

"Well, what happened in the illusion was that she was trying to implant some of her power in Shade or I. Eventually, the blast was going for me, but Shade pushed me out of the way, and he got took the blast." said Izual, frowning.  
"Why would she want to give her power like that?" asked Bastion.

"Because by doing that, she established a mentality on Shade. She made him her lackey, and he knows, however the worst part is that he can't do anything about it." said Izual.

"Why not?" asked Jaden.  
"We are not too sure, we think the power is binding him. What she wants from here is-"

"…the three Sacred beasts. Where are they, Cherry?" said Shade, to the redheaded announcer girl. They seemed to be in a room, with only a door. In reality, it was the back stage room behind the door. As he walked closer, he examined her. She was wearing a black shirt with some blue jeans. She was lying against the wall, surprisingly not scared unlike most of Shade's victims.

"I could tell you where they are, but I'd gain nothing from doing so." said Cherry.

"Don't make me make you tell me where they are." said Shade as he walked closer to her. The room wasn't that big to start with, so he didn't have to walk much.

"What are you gonna do?" asked the girl. He grabbed her arms and he looked at her in the face with a grin…

"What can she do with those?" asked Bastion

"Those would grant her enough power to be summoned out, and seek havoc and mayhem." said Izual.

"Wow…what a story…How are you gonna stop Shade?" asked Jaden.  
"I don't know. Shade is like a brother to me, even his sister…wait a minute, where are we going?" asked Izual, as he pointed to the dorms. "The dorms are in the other direction?" Bastion and Jaden smiled.

"Dummie. Every time after an announcement, we go to the beach, what we call the "after party". " said Jaden.

"Yeah, we just go to the beach, and they make big bonfire and stuff." said Bastion as they noticed they had arrive. It was essiantly what they had said. About four big bonfires, spread around the beach as everyone was swimming in the ocean with some music.

"I didn't bring anything to swim though." said Izual.

"Sure you did." said Jaden. "Check your pants." Izual looked at him weird then he checked his pants. They essentially had swim trunks under.  
"But how?" asked Izual, amazed.

"I sneaked them early in the morning." said Jaden. Izual sigh.

"And the teachers don't mind?" asked Izual.

"They usually don't know, unless Cherry tells them."

"Cherry?" questioned Izual.

"She's the announcer girl. She's very good looking, and all the boys would be falling for her if she wasn't such a tattle teller." said Bastion, in a logical way.

"Oh…" said Izual

"Let's go!" said Jaden.

"But I…" stated to Izual but Jaden interrupted.  
"Just come on." said Jaden as he dragged him and Bastion followed. "Who knows, you might get lets of fun."

"Or see Jasmine in a bikini." suggested Bastion as they mixed into the crowd. Izual removed his pant to reveal the dark blue trunks and took of his shirt, hiding the chain mail on it. He tossed it on a safe spot and went to the water.  
"I can't swim…" said Izual as he finished and sighed. _This is pointless _he thought as he walked away. Meanwhile Jaden and Bastion were looking for people.

"A lot of people, can't even find Christy…" said Jaden, he spotted her talking with Alexis, near a bonfire. "Christy!" Christy turned around and smiled as he rushed to Jaden, and hugged him.

"Jaden! I don't know what to say…" said Christy as he looked at him, her eyes looking pretty with fire behind her. Alexis smiled as she decided to leave the two alone. Bastion shrugged his should and went around to the pool, calmly.

"Can't believe Jaden convinced me to go…" said Bastion as he walked around the beach. Izual sat at the top of the cliff, looking down at the people. He sigh as he looked at the big moon, with the stars around it. He smiled. Then he noticed someone sitting next to him…

Dr. Crowler walked to his classroom. "I can't believe I forgot those notes." said Dr. Crowler. "So slifer-like of me to do." Then as he opened the back stage door, he noticed to figures, kissing.

"What's the meaning of this?" asked Dr. Crowler. The two figures broke their kissing, and Shade looked at Crowler, with a grin.  
"Dr. Crowler, I told you we would meet again." said Shade, sending sound waves at crowler so he could understand his latin. Then he focused more of the sound waves as they made everything look like something out of a jungle. He turned to Cherry. "Nice doing business with you." She seemed to be smiling, as he jumped back and phased through the wall. Crowler just shouted as he ran, ignoring the jungle. He was surprised as he crash into the "invisible" wall. As Shade faded out, the illusion disappeared. Shade started running until he got to what seemed like a tall building.

"Sacred Beasts…here I come." said Shade as he entered.

A/N: A lot of the stuff I said in the story is actually I true. I would recommend you guys to check Wikipedia for "Lilith" and some other terms. Although, Lilith never used sound wave power, but I liked the idea so…yeah.


	8. Flashback

-1Chapter 8: Flashback

Shade slowly walked and noticed what seemed to a clear room, with dark blue walls, and a light blue marble on the floor. There was a small pillar, about 5 feet high, with the three Sacred Beasts on the top, standing up with glass covering them. "Seems easy enough…" said Shade as he walked a small beeping sound triggered. "Hmm?" He looked at the walls as they slowly opened like elevator doors, revealing crossbows, loaded with arrow. "Grr-ate." said Shade as all seemed to be still for one second. It was an eerie silence. He jumped forward and all the crossbows started firing. Shade quickly ducked his head and ran till he got behind the small pillar, and managed to block the arrows coming from in front of the pillar. However, the ones from behind him hit back directly, puncturing it. He winced as well as let out of made a small sound, signaling his pain as the arrows pierced his back. Just as he pulled the arrows off, the floor from under him and the pillar opened up, making them both fall. _Grr…I'm falling into every trap! _thought Shade as he fell. He noticed he was falling through an small space then quickly stuck out his hand to block the fall. Meanwhile, the pillar kept falling till it left the small space into a bigger room. It landed solidly on the room, then the floor under the pillar started to moving to one side, the pillar going with it. The other part of floor that surrounded the pillar started moving the other way. Shade growled softly, then slowly moved down, then he noticed the floor. "What to do, what to do…" said Shade to himself then his hands glowed. He smiled. _Very classic of Lilith…helping me through flashbacks _thought Shade as he started to see flashback.

…

_Shade started to see a vision of his younger self, a younger Izual and young girl who had short girl with elegant red hair that was beautifully parted down the center, and her bangs flowed like fiery water falls, stopping short of the pools of green that were her eyes. They seemed to be staring at a small rectangular pool. The water was clear, and was only limited by a wall that enclosed the pool, and the room itself, making the pool, literally, the room. At the end of the pool, however, there seemed to a platform, with a door. There seemed be giant lily pads in the pool, arranged in lines. There was one big line of five lily pads, and two other lines of three lily pads on the sides of the pool, and next to the wall. The one's on the sides seemed to be farther apart, making a jump from one to the other almost impossible._

"_I bet you I can make it in four jumps." said Izual to the girl. Shade laughed a bit. It was obvious, to Shade, that Izual was trying to impress the girl._

"_No you can't. That would require the side route, and no one can jump that far." said Shade. Shade knew that Izual must have been very confident in order to this. Shade realized that Izual couldn't swim, so he knew this could be dangerous._

"_Still, it be funny to watch, eh brother?" asked the girl. Shade nodded. Izual growled._

"_Just watch." Izual braced himself as with a big leap he jumped on the first lily pad._

"_That's one. Don't worry, once you fall, we'll come rescue you" said Shade, grinning a bit. Izual grinned. He took a deep breath, then jumped against the wall and used the momentum to take three steps on the wall, then jumped from it, barely making it to the next lily pad. Shade looked surprised._

"_Go Izzy!" shouted the girl, excited. Izual grinned at Shade._

"_That's two." said Izual as he ran a bit then jump from the border of the lily pad, far into the wall, then took two extra steps then bounced off the wall onto the next lily pad, making it shake a little.  
"That's three…" said Shade in disbelief. Izual jumped to the rock platform.  
"…and that 's four." said Izual. The girl clapped._

"_Looks like he outsmarted you, eh brother?" asked the girl. Shade smiled._

"_I guess he did…"_

…

It seemed as if time had stop as he saw that flashback then realized what he had to do. "Thank you Izual." said Shade as he dropped down to the floor and landed perfectly. He noticed the pillar moving away, while the rest of the floor seemed to go against it. He quickly ran as he noticed the floor slowing him down and he jumped against the wall to get a quick boost, then bounced against the floor and did it again. It was tiring, but it allowed him to move faster than the pillar. He finally caught up, then jumped from the floor to the pillar and held on to it for dear life. He panted as he moved one hand to hit the glass, but before he could, he noticed the floor stopping moving forward, but rather it went up. He looked up and noticed there were many floors. He merely ignored then tried cracking the glass, then as he did , he looked at the cards. They were fakes.  
"AH!" shouted Shade, smashing his fist against the pillar. He groaned in pain. "Bad idea…" said Shade, then the floor stopped moving revealing a wide hall way, almost the size of a room, but it was long. Then to the other side, there was an identical pillar to the one he was on. He looked behind and noticed a wide window, about 6 feet high and 10 feet width, then he turned to look at the other pillar. There was only one obstacle. Actually, there were three. Three swordsman, identical in look, were in his way. They all had blonde hair, wearing a strange green armor with sharp blades. "You gotta be kidding! Those look identical to Neo the Magic Swordsman! They have to be illusions." said Shade. He showed them his palm and sounds wave came from it. Shade closed his eyes, and felt the waves bouncing off the body, and back to him, similar to how a bat does it.  
"We are real." said one of them.

"And we will…" said the second one

"Stop you." said the third one.

Shade noticed their speech. It was almost…robotic. _That's it! _thought Shade. _Robots._

"Bring it." said Shade as he pulled as his short sword. Then, the swordsman rushed towards Shade. Shade ran towards one side, and eventually one of the Neo's caught up to him and tried to slash him. Shade blocked him the blow with the sword, and noticed it was a hard blow. He quickly counter-attacked with a slash, but noticed it was ineffective. Another swordsman slashed Shade, on the side. He shouted in pain as he jumped back. He examined his wound, with blood coming out. It slowly dripped from his wound, almost like a tear. "Stay away, jeez!" shouted Shade as he ran for the pillar with the real cards. As he managed to get away, one of the Neo's seemed to just _glide _through the floor, as in of skate. Then it stopped in front of Shade. Then, there seemed to be electrical charge going through the sword, super charging.

"That is so wrong." said Shade as he jumped back before Neo could slash. "Or as Jaden would say, trippin' on cold stones? Or was it stone cold trippin'? I'll never know." Then he noticed another Neo close to him, and he jumped to the side. He looked up to find the third Neo, about to stab him. He used his hands to go between his legs and ran towards the wall, and panted. "This can't possibly get any worse…"

"Hey Jasmine." said Izual as he noticed her sitting. "What….'s up?" He noticed she was wearing a skimpy white two piece swimsuit. She looked beautiful, and was astonished.

"Hey Izual!" she said, looking cheerful. She looked at him and grinned at his expression. "Why aren't you down there with the rest of the people?" It took Izual a couple of seconds then he snapped out of it.  
"Umm, why aren't you there?" he answered, as he looked at the stars.  
"Well, I saw you up here, and decided to see why you weren't down there. Besides, things were getting weird…

_Flashback_

"…_so yeah, I am certifiably insane" said Jaden, in the crowd with Bastion, Syrus, and Christy, while holding her hand._

"_HEY!" said Christy. Jaden looked at her. She cuddled up next to him. "WE are certifiably insane." Jaden smiled._

_End of Flashback_

"…And you?" asked Jasmine, moving from side to side.

"Can't swim. Besides, I like to look at the stars. It's relaxing at times." said Izual. He pointed out in the air. "See that connection? That's the little dipper." Jasmine strained her eyes, and saw it.  
"I see it!" said Jasmine, as she looked at the stars then turned her attention to Izual. "so you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." said Izual just looking at the moon. Jasmine smiled.

"Good, don't want the old pervert to be depressed." said Jasmine

"Depressed? Why would I..HEY! I'm not a pervert!" said Izual, growling a bit.  
"Yeah you are. Remember? You were peeping on Christy, Alexis, Mindy and I." said Jasmine, laughing a bit.

"But I…." said Izual, and sighed. He knew what ever he said, she would just find a way to counter it. "I give up."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I know it was an accident." said Jasmine, she looked the other way as she started to get up, then stopped. She turned to face him. "But next time you want to do something like that…just ask." Jasmine started to get and it took Izual no more than a second what she meant. He immediately stood up to stop her.  
"Wait!" he said, and accidentally knocked her to the ground. He stumbled himself, and fell on top of her. Izual's head rested on Jasmine's shoulder. She immediately blushed as Izual slowly rose his head bit to find himself staring at Jasmine's face. They were a few inches away from each other.

"Izual…I want you…to…"


	9. Lilith is Thicker than Friendship

-1Chapter 9: Lilith is Thicker the Friendship

A/N: Sorry for the late chapter. Midterms were last week, had to buy Homecoming ticket just to get rejected by girl I liked, eventful week. Anyhow, here you go.

Shade saw on the Neo's gliding straight for him as Shade panted. "Damn." he said as he moved along the wall. He had learned to recognize the Neo's by slashes he had made on their sword. He had identified the fastest one as having a slash through the middle of his sword. He noticed the fastest one gliding on the floor towards him. Just before he got to Shade, Shade bounced off the wall to avoid him but got slashed on the leg. He shouted in pain, as blood started coming down his leg.  
"I need…help." said Shade as he ran to the other wall despite his pain. He noticed the other Neo's coming from the other wall. "Damn…" Then, it hit him.

_Flashback_

_A younger Shade was sitting on a chair of a very decorated temple, reading a book. The temple seemed to be very broad, similar to a church, with several columns and paintings hanging from the walls. The chair itself seemed to be old, made from wood._

"_Brother! Brother!" shouted a voice. Shade rose an eyebrow. He looked up from his book to find the similar short girl with elegant red hair that was beautifully parted down the center, with her bangs, running towards him and tackled him while he was reading. The chair fell down and Shade looked up at his sister with anger._

"_What is it, Rose?" asked Shade as he pushed her off and got up.  
"Izzy is in trouble!" she shouted, still panting as she stood up. Shade sighed._

"_What is it now?" asked Shade._

"_Culex and his friends. They are chasing him!" said Rose, as she started getting her breath back. Shade sighed._

"_The puppet guy? Damn it, Culex. Where are they?" said Shade as he ran out of the temple into what seemed to be a jungle._

"_Look up." said Rose. Shade look up to find some smoke above, drifting above the tree._

"_Thanks, I will be back." said Shade as he ran to where the smoke was, without realizing Rose was running behind him. Shade managed to get to the smoke and saw what was going on. It looked like a younger Izual jumping from tree to tree, bouncing of the trunk's of the tree. Behind him, there were three people following him. The one closest to him had long black hair, with purple eyes. He was wearing a black shirt with black pants. He seemed to be holding a long, skinny sword, with swift strikes. It looked like Izual knew how to fight all three, somewhat. He kept jumping, and since the purple-eyed person was the fastest, and most skilled. He would caught up with Izual, they exchange a few strikes, and in the end, he would come up victorious and slash Izual a few times, which lead him to jump again to avoid him. It looked as this cycle had gone a lot and Izual seemed to be covered in slashes, and his pace seemed to slow down._

"_Damn, Culex is fast." said Shade as he headed towards them. Izual lied against a tree, panting with blood flowing from everywhere. _

"_You...are…too…good…Culex." said Izual as Culex placed the tip of his swords a few inches away from his face._

"_I know, I try." said Culex, grinning then he stopped grinning when he saw Shade coming. "Yo, defense!" He jumped back seeing Shade coming. Shade quickly stepped on the spot he was before, then quickly turn to slash Culex. Culex used his sword to block it. He growled as Shade took the offensive. His weak sword wouldn't stand up to many blows. Then, two other masked warrior, one wearing a white mask, the other a black mask, appeared and tried to slash Shade. Shade quickly jump back against the tree Izual was lying against and looked at the warriors, at Izual._

"_You owe me for , you know that?" asked Shade. Izual grinned a bit and nodded. Shade rushed towards the one with the black mask. They all prepared to defend, then Shade jumped to the left, rather than against them head on. Then, from the left, he jumped to gain momentum and hurt the black masked warrior from the side. The masked warrior defended him self, and as he did, Shade jumped back and the masked warrior chased after, with Culex and the other masked warrior behind. Shade turned around and ran to a tree, knowing he was being chased. Then as he neared the tree, he raised his leg and placed his feet against the tree then used the momentum to take another step up the tree trunk, then another jumped off it and landed behind the black masked warrior, and in front of the white masked warrior and Culex. As he was descending, he slashed the white masked warrior's mask right through the middle. The sword to have pierced more than the mask as the warrior shouted in pain, and blood trickled from his face. Culex jumped to one side to it ended up with Culex on Shade's side, a stumbling bleeding warrior in front and a charging black masked coming from behind. Shade jumped towards Culex before the mask ninja could get to him. However, since he came charging, he crashed into the stumbling warrior, and ended up slashing his chest several times, which let to the warrior to fall down. Meanwhile, Shade went for Culex but this Culex managed to attack first, causing Shade's attack go on the defensive.  
"You were always a worthy adversary." said Culex as he kept swinging his swords in swift strikes. Due to the blade's structure, he could strike fast, and deadly, though defensively, it shouldn't hold much._

"_Likewise, Culex, but what makes you think you will beat me?" asked Shade . Culex grinned as he managed to slash Shade's hand, making Shade drop the sword. Shade quickly jump back._

"_It's over now!" shouted Culex as he went for the kill. Then, out of nowhere, came out Izual holding his sword that was similar to Shade's took the blows from Culex's strikes. He had managed to block most of 'em, but a good amount got through, hurting Izual even more. "Imbecile!" shouted Culex as he placed his palm up to Izual's face. He had a strange insignia in his palm. It was a big black circle. It starts glowing a bit._

"_Move away Izual!" shouted Shade as he pushed him away and the circle in the palm started opening from the middle…_

Shade looked at the Neo's. "That's it." said Shade as he moved ran towards the opposite wall while the gliding Neo stopped before crashing and quickly chased behind him. Meanwhile, the other Neo's position them between Shade and the other wall. Then, they all moved towards him. The Neo's started closing in on Shade from both side and they, as well as Shade, knew he could stop them. Then just before the fastest Neo got to him, and the two slower ones got him as well, he seemed to pressed his feet against the ground, causing a sliding maneuver. This caused his for body to turn horizontal and slide between the slower Neo's while the fastest Neo just cruised right through them knocking them to the floor. The Neo who was near the blade seemed to have his neck slashed smoothly, which let to some wires being cut. The wires themselves, emitted electricity, causing a short circuit on that Neo. The head exploded, and the Neo fell on top of the one ground leaving the Fastest neo currently standing. Shade quickly got up and ran as he knew that the Neo that remain was fast but he also knew he would stop him like he stopped Culex in the past. Shade noticed the Neo was gaining on him but he smiled as he reached the wall, and used the momentum of his movements to take two additional steps on the wall and jumped from it. The Neo turned to break before it crashed but it was no dice and it crashed into the wall. A loud bang could be heard but Shade wasn't done as he landed on the floor and did a similar move to the one he did against the white masked warrior, except in this case he stabbed his sword on the swordsman's head before the Neo had time to recover from the crash. As he stabbed, several sparks flew out, and shade quickly let go of his sword. Neo crashed.

"Quite the shock, eh?" asked Shade, smiling a bit as he grabbed one of the Neo's swords. "This will work better…" Shade started slowly walking towards the real pillar. He felt several wounds everywhere in his body. Blood trickled from his body onto the floor, most of his pain almost unbearable. He reached to the pillar and slash the glass. He was about grab them but the pillar started moving. "No way in cold hell am I gonna let you go…" Shade jumped and grabbed the pillar as it glided through the floor. Shade seemed to be dragged through the floor, his blood spreading on the floor, similar to the blood of proctor he had killed. Then he notice the pillar was gaining speed and heading towards the window. "This is isn't gonna stop is it…" said Shade as the pillar headed towards the window and went straight through it. From there, Shade realized he was on the second floor as he felled from it and fell to the ground with pillar. He landed with a great pain, as the glass broke and the Sacred Beast spread on the floor. Shade slowly stood up and shook a bit, laughing almost like if he was crazy. "Crazy…defense system…but it…couldn't stop me!" said Shade, as he rested against a tree the cards on his hand. He looked up at the moon. "Damn…Culex is waiting…" He started running almost stumbling but slowly regaining his posture as he ran.

Meanwhile, Izual looked down at Jasmine. He didn't know what to do, what to think, and if Jasmine were to do something , he wouldn't know how to react. Jasmine moved her hands to the back of Izual's head and slowly pulled him towards her face, their lips no more an inch away then Izual's hand glowed but since they were facing down, it couldn't be seen.

_Flashback_

_It appeared a younger Izual lying against a roof that seemed to be made of fancy rock, like the one the temple was build on. His head was placed on Rose's lap as they both into the night._

"_Pretty night, eh Vishnu?" said Rose, smiling a bit. Izual changed his gaze from the sky to Rose._

"_Vishnu? You are still calling me that?" asked Izual_

"_Why not? It's cute, besides it suits you." said Rose._

"_Whatever…Shiva." said Izual, laughing a bit._

"_So now I'm Shiva? Isn't that a male god?" asked Rose._

"_Eh, sound female to me, we'll go with it." said Izual._

"_Oh Izzy, you fool." said Rose as he laughed and Izual laughed. Then a noise could be heard as a younger Shade came from a trapdoor on the roof. He glared at a Izual and Rose, who shifted their gaze at him._

"_Izual…" said Shade as he seemed to clench his fist and go back into the trap door. _

"_Oh…crap." said Izual as he got up. "He's mad, and I gotta talk to him…" Izual quickly moved to the trap door and saw Shade walking away. "Shade! Wait up!" Shade started running and Izual chasing him._

_End of Flashback_

As soon as Izual snapped from the flashback his first thought was: Shade. Through the flashback, he managed to regain some his sense, and soon the bushes moved a bit. This got Jasmine, and Izual's, attention. Izual quickly moved off Jasmine as he noticed Shade running through the forest towards the dock. He quickly stood up looked at Jasmine lying there. He held back most of the thoughts in his mind.

"I'm sorry…" said Izual, as he ran grabbing his chain mail. He ran, chasing down Shade who stopped at the end of the docks.

"Where the hell are you Culex?" shouted Shade. "He's late."

"He was never good to depend on, you know." said Izual as he appeared at the part of the dock closest to land, on swim trunks and wearing a shirt, the chain mail hidden under the shirt.

"Izzy…glad you made it." said Shade, grinning bit as he turned around to face him. Izual looked a bit shock, as he took a step back. He looked at his old friend, now bleeding from many parts of his body. Shade was panting, holding onto on his arms. Izual was highly surprised he could still stand from his figure, having no clue of what Shade has been through.

"Shade, what happened?" asked Izual, worried. Shade flashed the three sacred beasts.

"Had to…finish Lilith's bidding." said Shade, chuckling. "And you reached the step in our adventure." Izual looked at him, then examined the situation.

"You are right…." said Izual.

"Indeed. And now, it's where everything resolves." said Shade. "Your last chance…at stopping Lilith, is here."

"But Shade…" said Izual, but he understood what he had to do. "Okay." Shade grinned a bit. as he threw his old at sword at Izual.  
"You'll need, if you want a chance at winning." said Shade.

"Shade…" said Izual.  
"Quit saying my name Izual. Listen, if I win, then Lilith wins, which means we all lose. If you win, it means I lose, which means we all win, and I'll be free." said Shade. Izual picked Shade's sword.

"But what if you kill me? Or I kill…" said Izual. "We were supposed to be friends till the end…" said Izual. Shade smiled as he used the sword he stole from the Neo's and charged forward and said one last comment.  
"Guess the end is now…"


	10. My name is Shade

-1Chapter 10: My Name Is Shade

A/N: There! I updated. Woot! As for my Hawkee, you can go with either the new fic, or the kindergarten one.

_Life is filled with mysteries _

As Shade charged directly into Izual, he grinned. Izual knew he had to be ready so he slashed quickly the incoming Shade only to realize it was an illusion.

"He is using sound waves already." said Izual, thinking what to do. He couldn't see where Shade was, but that was soon cleared as he appeared in front of him with a grin holding his palm facing Izual.

_One day, you are hanging around with your best friend, and your sister._

From his palm, he emitted several Super Sonic wave straights at Izual. He immediately covered his ears, but it was too late as Shade's plan had worked. Shade realized this as Izual jumped back, with his ears bleeding a lot. Izual had closed his eyes from the pain then slowly opened to find his Shade was… slanted. It seemed as if his view was slanted to a forty-five(45) degree angle to the left. Izual panicked, stumbling a bit back as he noticed Shade chuckle. He had to admit, if it wasn't for the fact that his life was in danger, looking at things like this was pretty cool, in a weird sort of way.

_The other, you are blasting that same best friend with a super sonic wave blast._

"Time to die, Izzy." said Shade, almost as if it wasn't him. "I evened up the field, giving me a fighting chance, so adios." He charged straight for Izual, which made Izual panic. How was he going to defend himself with his damaged eye sight. He even wondered he had managed to damage his eyesight with sonic waves. He could only assume that he must have temporarily damaged his Vestibulocochlear nerve, which probably disrupted his balance and movement. He assumed his body was somehow adjusting however he didn't have enough time to mount up a defense in this state.

_It's actually quite depressing as I look at it back. I bet Izual was probably so scared when I made him unbalanced._

Izual had time to look at the sword as he tried to defend with the sword Shade gave him. It was rather large, and somewhat heavy. Somewhat Shade's style, but seemed to expensive. Izual tried to block the shots, but due to this impaired vision, the shots were all off, leading to him getting slashed all over his chest. As he got slashed several times in what seemed a quick rush, Shade jumped back, panting. He had easily past Izual's pathetic defense, though he noticed he kept hearing a cling sound, as if he was hearing metal, also he didn't see any blood or hear Izual in pain.

"What…the hell?" he asked, panting as he noticed from Izual's rips from Shade's sword, metal rings attached to each other.

_I was highly surprised at seeing a Chain mail. Very cheap shot. However, my mind had already suffered from Lilith, so how could I know better? What have I done…let's see…_

"It's a chain mail. You know I'm bad with defense." said Izual, grinning a bit, starting to get a thrill of the fight, despite his extreme fear. Shade growled angered. How could he possible defeat Izual with that? He had wasted a good amount of strength for straight for Izual like that, and holding such a big sword wouldn't help. Izual still couldn't get a grip on the balance but try to attack. He rushed and tried to slash Shade, but missed completely. Shade jumped back still regaining his breath.

"Let's try this…" said Shade as he ran towards Izual, placing the tip of his sword forward. Izual started slashing the air, hoping to at least stop Shade while he figured out how to fight with his impairment.

_I backstabbed my best friend._

Shade ran and jumped to one side of the pier, then bounce off to go behind Izual. It was such as fast movement Izual, could barely caught it and go into defense when Shade stabbed his sword right into the metal rings. As soon as Izual felt the tip poking him, unable to go much father because of the Chain mail, he immediately rushed to slash the place where he felt the sword was. As he was about to strike, he had realized Shade's plan and moved back, barely dodging the sword the rise, aiming for Izual's head.

_I abandoned my sister._

Izual lifted his palm and tried to use his energy to make a sound wave strong like Shade's, but it wasn't strong enough. He hadn't received as much power as Shade did. The sound wave was strong enough to push Shade back though, but Shade enough time to send some sound waves to neutralize any sound waves from reaching his ears. Izual kept sending sound waves. He knew that this way, he was guaranteed hitting Shade due to how small the pier was. Shade kept sending his own waves to block his ears from getting damaged. Izual stopped after the 5th wave and jumped back. Izual knew how to do it. From that poke by Shade's sword that made him bleed, he realized how the balance was organized right now. While he still saw things, in a forty-five(45) degree angle, he figured how he slashed in coordination to how he was seeing.

_I joined a sexy succubus-like demon._

Shade realized that as long as Izual could kept sending sound waves, he was in deep trouble. He immediately started swinging and Izual tried defending Shade's swipes with some of his own. Surprisingly, the swords clanged as they hit each other, Izual deflecting some of the blows. Shade chuckled as he knew Izual had missed the whole point of the attack, which lead to Shade slashing the back of Izual's hand.

"AH!" shouted Izual as he dropped his sword immediate which lead to Shade slashing Izual's palm. As Shade's sword slashed Izual's hand, Izual jumped back as smoke started coming out of it. Pink light started coming from it. "Flashback.." _Why am I getting a flashback? _

_Flashback._

_It was one of the classic spars between Izual and Shade where it was totally one-sided, in Shade's favor. Izual was on the ground, groaning. His sword faraway from him, Shade gleaming. Shade kicked him which made Izual rolled to one side._

"_I…give…" said Izual, in pain. Shade kicked Izual's gut, pushing Izual forward.  
"What are you a failure? Fight!" shouted Shade as he kicked him again. Izual groaned again, then the flashback stop and started rewinding, showing that same scene over, and over again. The Izual watching the flash shouted "Stop!", in the flashback, but he kept seeing himself suffer, by the hands of Shade. The same scene kept rewinding faster and faster till it stop. And it was silent, all dark. Then a big Shade appeared and grinned._

"_This is my game." it said, laughing at Izual then it faded as his laughter deemed._

_End of Flashback_

As Izual saw the flashback and it stopped, all lasting about a second. He stared at Shade who had backed up in that second. He seemed to be extremely tired, by the way he was standing. Izual felt great pain in his hand from the slash, with smoke coming out of it. Shade had damaged the sound modifier in his palm. He ignored the pain.

"I'm not a failure!" shouted Izual as he used his other palm and emitted a very strong sound wave. Knocking Shade back several feet. He was highly surprised by the force of the wave. He felt extreme pain as he landed against the dock. Many thoughts rushed through his mind, though none of them including dealing with the pain he was feeling. He seldom wondered how he had managed to stayed up, but now he realized that he couldn't fight like this. He slowly stood up, wobbly.  
"Damn…" said Shade, looking at his wounds and how he had left several bloods spots all over the pier. He noticed Izual rushing towards him, swinging his sword. Shade tried to dodge Izual's despite, that were pretty accurate despite his inability. Due to his fatigue, he could only block most of them but got slashed by a couple. He moved back, but not before Izual slashed Shade's hand, making him drop the sword. Izual's slash only hit the top of the hand, and not the palm thus not disabling Shade's sound modifying system. Shade held his hand.

"You…" said Izual, mad. His eyes glowed a bit from the energy of Lilith. He did a long swipe on Shade. "I want you to feel my pain!" Then he slashed him again. "My anger!" Then he slashed another long slash on Shade. "AND ALL MY SORROW!!!" he shouted as a he sent several slash all over Shade. As he went for the last slash, he screamed "Ahhhhhh!" and stabbed his sword through Shade's abdomen. Shade widened his eyes at he felt the sword pierce through him. As he felt the sword stabbed in he wobbled a few steps back with the sword in his stomach, blood pouring out from the hole. Izual stayed still, his mind going over what he had just done. Shade chuckled a bit, as he fell backwards, hitting the pier. His blood coming, started making a little puddle. From the fall, three of his lilies fell on the blood.

_My name is Shade._

"Shade!" shouted Izual, as his eyes stopped glowing. He rushed to his friend. He couldn't believe he had taken him down. Shade merely looked to his side, looking at the lilies that had fallen on his puddle of blood, watching them turn black, and dying. He smiled a little, as some tears fell from his eyes, as his vision grew blurry. He rose his head a bit. "Karma…is a bit-" and with that, he dropped his head against the peer.

_And I have no regrets._


	11. A Second Beginning

-1Oh Castistas Lilium - Part II

Summary: More action, more romance, and there will be ACTUAL duels! Gasp, I know.

Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh GX, all i own is Shade, Izual, and other OC's.

Chapter 11: A Second Beginning.

It was a breezy Sunday after noon as Izual walked through the halls of the school. He seemed to have removed his white bucket hat. His once meaningful hat meant nothing to him now. It had been one month since the death of Shade. The death of Shade had affected him several ways, even his deck had changed. By losing Shade, it was as if he had lost a part of him. He lost his reason to fight, which lead him to being in a unhappy mood. The worst part is that he knew he had done it, and was too weak and foolish to have found any other way, even though there wasn't. His grades had dropped so much that Crowler moved him to front of the class, taking away his seat from Jasmine, who he seldom talked after that night. Among his depression, there was anger. Anger at himself for not finding a solution, anger for not striking his best friend. Angry at Shade for falling for Lilith's trap. However, Shade's death also made him feel a certain feeling of freedom. Shade had always been someone who told him what to do, and just someone he looked up. With him gone, he felt like trying new things, a strange rise of confident among his sadness. In overall, he had never felt more lonely. Even though he had always been lonely since he started chasing Shade, he always kept the hope that he could break Lilith's grasp on him, but now that he was gone, he felt the cold slap of reality. Izual rested his hand against a wall before entering a door.

"Just gotta let it go…" said Izual, sighing a bit as he opened the doors and noticed the crowd was full. He was surprised at this. There seemed to be a lot of dueling in the testing places. A lot of boys were cheering loudly, and the girls just watching the duels commenting. He had wondered why they were duels today, and why everyone was cheering. That is, till he noticed something in common with all the duels. They all involved girls, about the same age as Izual and the rest. They all seemed to be wearing a pink uniform, with short skirts. "A uniform? What is going on?" asked Izual to himself.

"So, confused yet intrigued?" asked Bastion, who was lying against the wall. Izual turned to face him.

"What's going on?" he asked, intrigued by the duels.

"It seems that there was a problem with one of our sister schools. They had a bomb threat, and they evacuated. It was the right call, as some of the rooms did explode, damaging the over structure of the school. Big mess." said Bastion. Izual looked at the duels then at Bastion. He was still confused.

"Why are they over here then?" asked Izual, wondering why they didn't just go to Japan.

"They will be remaining here until the school is fixed. Of course, they have to pass the entrance exam…" said Bastion. Izual let out a "ah" of understanding. He noticed the big concentration of guys in a certain duel, while others were spread. Some of the girls were watching few of the duels as well.  
"So what's so special about that duel with all the guys over there?" asked Izual, as he grew curious of that duel. Bastion smiled a bit.

"I'll show you." said Bastion, and with that he started walking towards the duel, to get a better view. As they got to a balcony to see from on top, due to over crowdness from the guys, Izual could see the duel. From the distance, he could only see the back of the female duelist. She seemed to have long red hair, that flowed beautifully. He looked at the life points.

Female Duelist: 3700

Proctor: 300

"Wow, the proctor is lucky. He is barely in there." said Izual, as he noticed the life points. Bastion chuckled.

"And that's what keep the guys so entertained. She is merely toying with him. Putting a good show, not to mention she is pretty cute." said Bastion. Izual gave a look Bastion. He didn't generally make those comment, thus it surprised him. He looked at the field. She seemed to have young lady with blond hair, wearing a swift saber, with a mesh armor. She was very beautiful, despite her outfight ready for battle. Easily recognized by the fan boys as D.D. Warrior Lady. The proctor seemed to have a big stone-based monster in defense guarding his life points. Also easily recognized as Giant Soldier of Stone.

"She seems to have pretty good looking monster cards." said Izual, referring at D.D. Warrior Lady.  
"Which also attracts the attention of the guys, though beyond that, D.D. Warrior Lady is pretty strong. As you know, she can remove herself and a monster she battles with." said Bastion. Izual raised his eyebrow. If D.D. Warrior Lady can do, then why hasn't the duelist already commanded D.D. Warrior Lady to do so with the Giant Soldier of Stone, then attack with a new monster to win the match?

"Then why doesn't she?" asked Izual, intrigued by this choice of action.

"Because she doesn't need to do so at the moment, she wants to show everyone what she can do, I assume." said Bastion as he noticed the female duelist summon a monster. But you couldn't really call what she summoned a monster. It was female monster, with light pink hair, and big nurse hat with a big heart on it. She also big wings for her petite body. She seemed to be carrying a big needle, and by big I mean humongous. She had to use both hands to carry her, and even then, it was surprising she would carry that. She also had white gloves, with a nice red and white outfit. The guys went crazy, recognizing the card as Injection Fairy Lily.

"Wow." said Izual, remarking the beauty of the monster. "From the looks of that needle, I can see why guys are cheering so." Bastion laughed at this.

"Agreed." said Bastion, as he watched the female duelist command D.D. Warrior Lady to crash into Giant Soldier of Stone. The female duelist took 500 life point damage, however, due to D.D. Warrior Lady's effect, she removed herself and the giant stone soldier. Then Lily went for the attack, but she stopped before injecting the proctor. The female duelist said something which they couldn't quite hear but the guys cheered as the injection grew twice it's size, as if it wasn't big enough. The nurse moved quickly and "poked" the proctor with the big needle, ending the duel. The crowd cheered as the Proctor shook the female duelist's hand and they started walking outside of the dueling place. The female duelist turned around to look at her crowd. Izual finally got a look at her face, but not very close however he had made eye contact is his eyes widened for a moment. She seemed to have not noticed as she turned around and left the area.

"Crazy." said Izual to himself. She looked familiar…somehow, he just couldn't pinpoint.  
"I know what you mean. Just how big can that needle become? Talk about those people who are scared of needles." said Bastion. Izual looked at Bastion

"Oh? Oh. Needle, yeah, big." said Izual, somewhat distracted then heard a boom on one side. Most of the boom was drowned by the fan boys, but he could still see it. He had heard many booms from a duel, so he was somewhat curious. It was another female duelist with straight, shoulder-length, medium brown hair. Izual wondered why there were bombs till he saw the monster on her side of the field.  
"It's Gearfried the Iron Knight." said Bastion. "I think I know what strategy she is using."

"Well, I don't, fill me in?" asked Izual, curious. Bastion chuckled, looking at the life points.

Female duelist: 1300

Proctor: 2500

"Do you know the effect of Gearfried, the Iron Knight?" asked Bastion as he pointed to knight standing on the female duelist's side. He seemed to be very protected. Izual couldn't see how he could create explosions.

"Something about destroying cards?" guessed Izual, not knowing much about the card.

"Gearfried destroy any spell card that are equipped to him." said Bastion. This still didn't explain.

"So?" asked Izual. Bastion grinned as he looked at the proctor's field, only having 1 face-down monster left.

"Observe." said Bastion, as he pointed to the female duelist flipping her face-down card. From it, several chains wrapped themselves around Gearfried, with explosives.

"Hey, it's Blast with Chain" said Izual, surprised at the card.

"Quite, gives a nice 500 attack boost, but since it's Gearfried he will destroy, and if you know Blast with Chain OTHER effect…"

"It blows up one card on the field when it's destroyed by a card effect." said Izual, as he watched the explosives be removed by Gearfried's armor, and sent right at the face-down monster, destroying it completely, making another boom. "Nice." She summoned another monster, and attacked the Proctor directly for the win.

"Well, that's a very interesting deck. Would be nice to duel it, don't you think?" asked Bastion. Izual stroke his chin.

"Yeah, but we don't even know her name." said Izual.

" It's May." said Jaden as he popped seemingly out of nowhere.  
"Where'd you come from?" asked Izual, wondering where he pop out of.

"Ask my mom. She wouldn't tell me." said Jaden, which made Izual and Bastion look at each other. "But yeah, her name is May, or Diana May I suppose, though the girls are calling her just May."

"Shouldn't you be with Pichu rather than finding about the new girls?" asked Bastion.

"Yeah, I was. She was watching the duel, but I took a break. So what do you guys think of the new competition?" asked Jaden.

"Intriguing, to say the least." said Izual, thinking about it.

"Yes, quite. But what are the chances of an all-girl dueling school would just get damaged?" asked Bastion.

"Dunno, blame the crappy author." said Izual, they agreed.

"So did you guys hear? There's also a guy here." Jaden turned to Bastion confused.

"A guy? From an all girl's school?" asked Jaden, confused.

"Yeah, I'm not entirely sure on how he got on the boat, but he did. They did on a duel on him this morning, it seems no one caught it however. Makes me curious about his deck." said Bastion. Then, all the duelist seemed to leaving.  
"Looks like the duels are over…" said Izual as he stepped out with Bastion and Jaden through the doors, into the grassy environment. The crowd slowly filled everywhere, as the new girls started going to their dorms.

"We'll probably get announcement on this, eh?" asked Izual. Bastion nodded.

"Hey look, it's the Gearfried duelist." said Bastion as he pointed to the girl walking a bit aimlessly. They walked up to her. "You need any help?" She jumped back, surprised from their encounter. From the closer distance, you could see her warm hazel eyes, that were almost comforting.

"Sorry." said May as she recovered her balance. "You caught me by surprise…so…who are you guys?" The guys introduced themselves.

"Nice duel there. I like that deck." said Izual.

"Thanks, it's my own creation." said May, proud of her deck.

"Very successful from what we saw." said Bastion.

"Yeah! Awesomely cool!" said Jaden. "We should duel sometime." May smiled.

"That would be nice." said May.

"Hey, I want to du-" said Izual, then his eye caught something else. It was the other female duelist, with red hair. She walked close to them, but not noticing as she was talking to other girls. Izual could see her eyes from there, beautiful green. This stroke him with even more of a familiar sensation. Who was this chick, that gave him such a familiar feeling.  
"Izual?" asked Jaden, poking Izual. Izual snapped from this thinking.

"Huh? Oh. Sorry. I wanted to duel her too…" finishing his statement, he was a bit confused. May was about to say something when they made announcement to go to the dorm.

"What dorm did you get?" asked Bastion.

"Obelisk blue. Well, I'll see you guys later." said May as she left.

"There is definitely something about these girls…" said Izual to himself as the group started walking to the dorm.


	12. Puppet Goes Boom

-1Chapter 12: Puppet goes Boom.

A/N: Ah, my loyal and dear Katreal. It's nice someone catches the humor. Glad to see you are actually reading the fic.

Class with Dr. Crowler was, as always, a drone. Izual merely doodled on his paper. He never enjoyed his new seat. Though he and Jasmine were never quite the same incident, he still enjoyed her company. Upfront there wasn't much room to talk or anything. He started doodling on his paper, and ignore Dr. Crowler's lecture. It didn't seem to be interesting anyways, but eventually Dr. Crowler caught up with him.

"…Of course, we can all see the importance of this, isn't this right, Izual?" asked Dr. Crowler as he snatched the paper he was doodling on and crumbled.

"Of course, Dr. Crowler." said Izual as he looked up at the blond man. He wasn't about to get detention for doodling.

"Then could you give us a summary of this important aspect of the game?" asked Crowler, chuckling. A daring move which would knock most people into detention, but Izual was ready for it.

"I would, but you took my notes." said Izual, pointing to the crumbled paper. Crowler grew a bit annoyed.

"Do you call these doodling 'notes'?" asked Crowler as he opened the paper and showed the doodles.

"No, I call the words written on the back of the paper 'notes'" said Izual, smirking. Dr. Crowler looked at the back of the paper and, indeed, there were notes. His was angered. There was no way he could have been taking notes, Crowler knew this. However, at amidst the confusion and anger, he didn't notice the girl next to Izual biting her lip. He hadn't realized that Izual had snatched her notes and doodle on the back of them. "So, can I have my notes back?" asked Izual, chuckling. Crowler looked as if he was to go crazy but sighed. He handed the paper to Izual

"Yes, my apologies." said Dr. Crowler as he let the class take five to calm down. Izual sighed as he turned to side and looked at the girl.

"Sorry about that, May." said Izual as he flattened the paper and handed it to her. She stop biting her lip and picked up her notes and sighed.

"It's okay, I guess." said May, not enthusiasms in her voice. Izual felt somewhat bad for he had done, so he decided he should try to find a way to make up for that.

"I'll make up for it, I promise." said Izual, as he gave her a smile. She smiled a bit and placed her paper under a book, to get flattened. "I saw your duel. Very explosive."  
"You did? I was pretty reckless most through it, but when a good amount of your card explode when played…hard not being." said May, smiling.

"Must be, still, it be nice to duel you one of these days." said Izual. "Just to play against that crazy deck." said Izual as he looked at her. She sure had innocent look. Crowler made an announcement, and told the class to leave a few minutes early, but Izual to stay for a moment.

"I'll see you later." said Izual as he walked to Crowler and May left with the rest of the people. "Yes, Dr. Crowler?"

"You are sneaky one, I'll give you that much. Don't doodle in my class. Understood?" asked Crowler. Izual smirk.

"Alright. No doodling." said Izual and with that he started walking outside the classroom, worked on some homework. When he finished, he noticed there were people crowding a certain area. He walked towards it and notice a duel, or actually the end of a duel.

"That guy is crazy good." said someone in the crowd. He looked at the person in the duel with a smirk. He had dark long hair, with a smirk that showed amusement from defeat of the other.

"C'mon! Who's next?" asked the person to the crowd, then May stepped up.  
"I'll play, Culex." said May, smiling. Izual's eye widened as he recalled the name, then matched it with the person. They seemed very similar. It had to be. Culex smiled at the challenge.  
"Alright, what's your name?" asked Culex. It was obvious that she had obtained his name from the crowd .

"May, do you mind if I start first?" asked May, as he set her duel disk ready and so did Culex.

"Go ahead." said Culex

Culex: 4000

May: 4000

(A/N: I'll try not to use fake cards, however if the need rises, the card itself shall be specified what it does, as well as everything else to avoid any kind of "secret" effects. Lucky for you guys, no fake cards in this duel)

May summoned Gearfried, the Iron Knight and the knight rose. "Now, I play Smoke Grenade of the Thief!" said May as she played it and a bag of grenades appeared on Gearfried's back. "Due to Gearfried's effect, the grenades are destroyed and I can see your hand and remove a card from it." Culex chuckled as he saw the grenades explode into a wide smokescreen. Meanwhile, Gearfried stole Culex's hand and showed her his hand. It consisted of Mysterious Puppeteer, Magician's Circle, Magical Marionette, Old Vindictive Magician, and Pot of Greed. "I'll destroy your Pot of Greed." And with that he discarded it and gave Culex back his hand. May set a face-down card and ended her turn.

"Very nice, but it's my turn." said Culex as he drew a card. He played a purple cloaked puppeteer, who had his entire face covered, except for his glowing eyes. He seemed to be holding a doll. "I'm a puppeteer, just like this guy. Let me tell you, he's no pushover." said Culex, as his Mysterious Puppeteer readied for action. "I play Magical Dimension!" With a giant coffin rose ground. The puppeteer faded away and from the Coffin, a card from Culex's hand appeared. It looked like a metallic being, wearing a red cloak. He had many strange wires glowing an eerie green from his hands that went to the doll that the wires were holding. The doll itself had pretty big daggers.

"Magical Marionette?" asked May as he noticed the monster coming out. Culex nodded.

"But that's not all! Magical Dimension allows me to kill one monster on the field, in this case, your Gearfried." From the coffin, chains appeared and headed straight for Gearfried.  
"Chains, eh? Let me chain to your chains with my own chain, Blast With Chain, that is." said May, smiling at the amount of times she used the word "chain". Chains wrapped around Gearfried, as well as explosives. Due to Gearfried's effect, however, the chains broke and the explosives were sent straight at the Marionette, destroying it. The coffin, however, remained it's chain and pulled Gearfried into it, thus killing. Culex looked in disbelief. She had countered his move. He was angered. He set a face-down magic or trap and ended his turn. May smiled as he knew that had to be Magician's Circle. "I pay Reinforcement of the Army! This card allows me to fetch a level 4 Warrior type monster from my deck and add it to my hand." said May as she searched through her deck for gearfried and summoned it. "Now, Gearfried, attack!" The big iron knight ran straight for Culex and smacked him with his big sword. Culex groaned.

Culex: 2200

May: 4000

May ended her turn. Culex drew. Craptastic hand, he thought, as he looked over it. He summoned a strange monster to the field. It had a purple cloak on it however, the face was at the middle of the cloak was the face. Above, was a circle, with two small eyes, barely counting as a face. Arms did stick out, with hands. One was holding a staff. "Rogue Doll, attack!" said Culex as Rogue Doll went for the attack. May wondered why. Rogue Doll only had 1600 attack, compared to Gearfried's 1800. As the Rogue Doll went for Gearfried, he triggered the face-down Magician's Circle. "Since I attacked with Spellcaster, we both get to summon any spell caster, 2000 attack or lower from our decks into the field." Culex summoned another Magical Marionette, and May looked through deck frantically, but only found one. She sighed as she summoned her weak Magician of Faith in attack-mode.

"Ha, that's gotta suck. Due to the number of monsters on your side of the field changed, I get a replay. So, Magical Marionette attacks Gearfried, and Rogue Doll attack Magician of Faith." The marionette moved the string and the puppet ran into gearfried and pierced his heavy armor. Meanwhile, Rogue Doll launched a purple spell straight at weak magician and obliterated her, causing a big dent in May's life points.

Culex: 2200

May: 2500

Culex gleamed at his comeback and ended his turn.  
"Very nice move, but it's time I turned it around." said May as she played Premature Burial, and a hand dug deep into the ground and pulled Gearfried. However, as it as equipped, the hand was destroyed, and it's effect negated. Culex looked confused.

"You do realize by playing that spell, my Marionette gets a boost of 200 attack points?" asked Culex, as Marionette did in fact grown stronger. "For every spell played, it gets a counter. For every counter added, it gets 200 attack points." May smiled.

"I know. I play Fusion Sword Murasame Blade." said May as Gearfried obtained a mystic sword that was glowing. "It's a nifty equip card that raises my monster's attack by 800" And indeed, Gearfried was 2300. Culex was confused again.  
"First, wouldn't Gearfried kill that equip? Secondly, my Marionette is now 2400, too strong for you to stop, then why use it?" asked Culex.  
"Fusion Sword Murasame Blade's effect prevents it from destroyed by cards that destroy spell cards, such as Gearfried's. I know of your Marionette's effect, which is why I play Riryoku!" said May, as a strange glow appeared on the marionette and gearfried. The Marionette gained 200 attack from the counter, but then lost half it's attack, and ended with 1300 attack, and Gearfried's attack rose 1300 more, with ended up being 3600 attack.

"Thirty-six hundred!?" shouted Culex as he noticed Gearfried's attack power. May grinned.

"Yeah, Gearfried, attack for the win!" shouted May as the gearfried ran towards the Marionette, and slashed it, inflicting enough damage for you game.

Culex: -100

May: 2500

Culex looked surprised. "I lost…" said Culex, angered as the monsters disappeared. May walked to Culex offered a handshake.

"Good game." she said. Culex looked at her, looked into her eyes, and smiled a bit. It was if her warm hazel eyes had a calming effect on him. He was still displeased with the lost, but he'll get his revenge.

"Good game." he said as he shook her hand and started walking away. It was obvious to the crowd he loved winning, and losing like that just cut his pride. Izual watched. _That was pretty good duel, for someone who's not an expert on the game _thought Izual as he watched the duel. As he realized it was over he decided to go duel May but then realized he didn't bring his deck. _Darn it._ He sighed as he looked down and started walking away. _Bummer, I had really wanted to get a duel there._ Then, without realizing he stumbled against someone. They both fell backwards, away from each other. He fell on the floor. He looked at who he had stumbled upon, about to say "watch where you are walking" when he realized who it was. It was the red-headed duelist from the all-girl school. She scratched the back of her head, and looked at Izual, and both of them got caught looking into each other's eyes. There was an awkward silence. Izual was the first to break the ice. "Sorry." said Izual as he stood up offered a hand. He looked at her. She had a beautiful figure, with loving face. She just looked up at him, and took his hand, and stood up.

"It's okay." she said as she stood up and looked at him. Izual felt a strangle, familiar feeling, as if he had met her before, but where? It wasn't just a familiar feeling either, he felt warmth and coziness. His mind couldn't go very far without thinking of Shade's death, which made him stop those thoughts. Whoever she was, if he had met her before, then the thoughts of Shade would cloud them.  
"Have we met before?" asked Izual to the girl. She showed a face of confusion, however, it was somewhat odd, as if hiding a sign of disappointment.  
"I don't think so. Name's Suri. Yours?" asked Suri to Izual. The name sounded unfamiliar.

"I'm Izual, nice deck, by the way." said Izual, recalling the duel.   
"Thanks, I put effort into it." said Suri. "I…gotta go, I'll catch you around?" she asked as she ran away.

"Around it is." said Izual, not being able to shake off the familiar feeling. Meanwhile, Chancellor Shepard was in room, discussing certain things with the head of the other school.  
"…so I think we should do this, to find who wants the Sacred Beast." said Chancellor Shepard. The opposing lady had red outfit with long curly hair.

"I'm not a fan of risking my students, but if we must, then we shall." said the lady.


	13. Puppet Pride

Chapter 13: Puppet Pride

A/N: Sorry for the wait, FFnet. wouldn't take this...for some reason.

Izual walked through the forest. His mind wandered around as he took his walk. He was thinking of why everyone was showing up NOW. He had recognized Culex's appearance and name, and he being there didn't exactly make him the happiest duelist on the island. Culex and Izual were never the best of friends. They were more like the worst of enemies, though Culex considered him as crap. Culex considered Shade his only "worthwhile" opponent. A rival, if you would. They fought ALL the time, mostly draws. Izual chuckled to himself, recalling being taken hostage just to get Shade to fight Culex. Then Shade came into his mind, and he quickly banished all thoughts of him. He hadn't quite handled his death yet. He sigh, hoping to find some relaxation in the forest, then he hit something, somewhat hard. He looked up to find a face staring at him, with eyes glowing red. "Hello." said the face and Izual jumped back against a tree…or so he thought 'till he realized he had hit wooden puppet. The puppet itself, wrapped it's arms and legs around Izual and pulled an extra pair of arms from it's sides, to wrap Izual even more tightly, thus making him unable to move.  
"What the?" asked Izual as he noticed the face he had hit was part of another puppet, that was done pretty good. It all needed was painting and it would look like a real human.  
"Puppets are cool, wouldn't you agree?" asked Culex as he walked from a bush, to face Izual. Izual groaned. He fell easily into his trap.  
"What are you doing here? How did you get here?" asked Izual, wondering how he got to the island.  
"I came here to do what Shade couldn't do. Get the Sacred Beast, that is. I sneaked on the boat of the all girl school. " said Culex. Izual looked at him with angry, trying to keep all thoughts of Shade away from his head. Culex turned around. "Pretty good ride"  
"Why can't you just leave?" asked Izual. Culex turned around to face Izual and slapped him. The pain from the slap stung.  
"Fool. You are nothing but a fool. A job was supposed to be carried, but it wasn't. And YOU, out of all people, had to stop it. I fail to see how you could have stopped Shade. His fighting style was excellent, way beyond yours. The control of his sound-manipulating device was much more efficient than yours. And let's not forget he was fueled by Lilith's power, I just don't see how. That angers me, you know?" asked Culex, glaring at Izual. "I thought you didn't like Shade? I thought you would be glad I…I…" said Izual, unable to say the words he didn't utter to believe. Shade punched Izual's gut, and he groaned immediately. "You are too dumb. You would never understand." said Izual. "For now, I will merely finish my job. If you get in my way, you will get killed. Don't think of this as a warning, think of it as a threat"  
"You idiot, don't you realize Lilith's controlling you? She's using you for her own bidding!" said Izual as he looked at him walk away. Culex merely chuckled.  
"Lilith has no control over me. I made my choice to help her. And just for making that comment, I'm leaving you there." said Culex as he exited. Izual started shouting in frustration, but to no avail. The puppet's hold was too strong. He sighed. He couldn't stay there all day, right? Besides, night was coming, so he couldn't possibly stay there. Sadly, no one came. Hours passed, and he remained there, stuck to the puppet. The hours of standing made him weak, tired, and , most of all, sleepy. But he fought the sleep to remain awake. His body wouldn't let him. He knew that he fell asleep, and animal or something could get to him. Not like being awake helped much in his position, but it did bring a certain feeling of safety. He had considered crying for help, but at this time of night, he was sure no one would come. From what he could of assume by the position of the moon, it was midnight or near it. He sighed, as his fight against sleep started falling a part, he started to slowly close his eyes. He almost feel asleep instantly till he heard some utter a single word. "Izual?". He opened his eyes and noticed Jasmine. "Jasmine?" he asked, he walked towards her, but was pulled back by the strings that held the puppet. She looked somewhat shocked to find him there, and tied to a puppet.  
"What happened? What are you doing here?" she asked as she examined the puppet. Izual decided to just evade questioning.  
"Culex played a prank on me." said Izual as he sighed. Jasmine chuckled a bit. "He got you good. Here, let me set you free. " said Jasmine as she tried breaking the strings.  
"I have a dagger on my left pocket, you can use that." suggest Izual. Jasmine nodded as she dug through his pocket and found the dagger.  
"Why exactly do you carry a dagger with you?" asked Jasmine as she started cutting the various strings.  
"Safety?" said Izual as she slashed the strings. Jasmine chuckled a bit. "So why are you here? Isn't a little late"  
"Never too late for a midnight stroll…quite literally" said Jasmine. Then she hugged him. His eyes opened a bit, surprised. Jasmine and him had never been quite the same affect the whole incident before Shade's death. Having Shade die a few minutes after that didn't exactly make it a better friendship. While they would often talk at times, they both delayed talking about that incident.  
"Hold on." said Jasmine as she held him and slashed the last string, which made him drop on the floor a bit. Jasmine made sure he wouldn't stumble over. She started breaking the puppet's arms with the dagger as she let go off him and rested him against a tree. Izual wasn't sure what to say. He was grateful indeed.  
"…umm…Thanks Jasmine…" he said, unsure of what to say in the silence of the night. She smiled as she broke the first pair of arms off him.  
"No problem. Just be glad I decided to take that walk, and that I'm helping. I could have just left you here…for the whole night." said Jasmine, grinning as she broke the other pair arms and was working on the legs of the puppet.  
"I owe you one, eh?" said Izual as she finished chopping the last of the puppets leg and he finally just fell on the floor due to his tired state. He sat down, lying against a tree.  
"You okay Izual?" asked Jasmine as she sat next to him. She could tell by physical state that he must have been there a good while.  
"Yeah, I'm just tired. Thanks ag…" Izual couldn't finish his last statement. As he was free of the puppet, his mind immediately stopped his survival instinct. He felt safe, despite he wasn't out of the forest yet, being around Jasmine. Thus, all the pain he was holding back. He felt the extreme tiredness, and immediately fell to the side, his head landing on Jasmine's lap. Jasmine slightly blushed at his reaction.  
"Izual!" she said, but then notice he was sleeping, apparently deep. "I can't leave him here…who knows what could happen to him. " said Jasmine to herself. "I can't take him to the boys dorm though." She wondered what to do and decided just to stay there. She would have to watch over him. She sighed and slowly closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

…

The sun shined through the forest. Izual felt the rays of light hitting his face. He slowly groaned a bit as he opened his eyes a bit.  
"Too bright…" he said, to himself. Then he notice his surroundings. He looked up saw and Jasmine. "Jasmine…" He slowly recalled the events of last night. She actually remained here. He even felt comfortable in her lap, but he wouldn't admit that to himself, much less her. Then, his mind started realizing that…today was Friday. There was class today! He wasn't sure how to wake up Jasmine. Thankfully, she woke up. She opened her eyes a bit, and looked at Izual. "Hi Izual…" she said, yawning a bit. Izual looked up at her.  
"Hey…we got class to go…" said Izual as he stood up from her lap. Jasmine yawned again. "You are right." She stood up as well Izual. "We have around 10 minutes to get to class. Let's go!" said Jasmine as she grabbed Izual's hand and ran. He ran as well. They were bit a far from class but managed to make it. Both of them were panting as they made to the class, a minute or two to spare.  
"Glad for you two to join us." said Dr. Crowler as he looked at the two. They both sighed. Izual looked at their hands and slowly unclasped it out of her hand. Jasmine didn't seem to have noticed as they both walked to their seats. Izual wasn't sure what had happened there. May giggled. "What were you two doing? For the looks of it, you were busy all night." said May to Izual. He looked at her and sighed.  
"No, you see I-" said Izual, but he was cut off by Dr. Crowler.  
"Class, today you are going to be doing an assignments in pair. This assignment is important for the big test tomorrow. May, work with Culex. Izual work with Jasmine. Bastion, work with Suri. Syrus work with Chazz. Now, get to work." said Dr. Crowler as he turned around and was about to walk away when someone in the crowd started speaking.  
"Wait!" shouted the kid. Crowler turned around.  
"Yes?" responded Crowler, wondering what the student wanted.  
"What about the rest of us?" asked the kid.  
"Sorry, I only pair up main characters. Now go work." said Dr. Crowler and with that, he went to grade some papers. Izual went to sit next to Jasmine. "Hey." he said, smiling a bit then groaned at the assignment. "C'mon, don't be lazy." said Jasmine, as she started working on it. "Here, go look up these terms." She pushed a big book titled 'The Art of Busy Work: Duel Monster's Edition'. Izual sighed even more and went looking up the terms. Meanwhile, Suri complained at the work.  
"So much work!" said Suri, as she looked at the paper. Finding all those terms would take them at least an hour. She wondered how she was going to find them all…and then Bastion merely nodded.  
"There. Done and done." said Bastion. Suri looked up.  
"No way." said Suri as she looked over Bastion's paper. She was left open-mouthed. Every question was filled. "That's crazy! How!?" "I know most of these answers, shows what studying can do eh?" said Bastion, chuckling. Suri sighed.  
"I still gotta finish my half…" said Suri as she got to work, but then Bastion slowly pulled her paper.  
"If I may…" said Bastion as he filled her answers. Suri looked confused.  
"Huh?" said Suri, then she noticed Bastion filling in the answers. "That's crazy. I seriously owe you!" Suri was just amazed. Most of the other groups were only starting, and they were already done. "It's cool." said Bastion, merely chuckling.  
"Seriously, first you gave me that tour of the school yesterday, now the answers? It's crazy." said Suri, her green eyes beaming with joy.  
"Nah, I don't need anything from you. said Bastion "Well, could you help me study for the test?" asked Suri, hoping for a yes. Bastion chuckled. Meanwhile Culex looked at the work.  
"No way." said Culex. May looked at him. "What do you mean? C'mon, it won't be that hard, promise." said May, smiling. Culex looked at her and laughed a bit.  
"You are funny, you know that? How about I steal the answers?" asked Culex. May looked at him disbelief. "You can't do that." said May. Culex gave her a look.  
"Why not?" asked Culex. May just grinned a bit.  
"You'll get caught. They are right on his desk." said May, as she pointed to the papers.  
"Wanna bet?" said Culex, as he grinned. May chuckled.  
"What are the stakes?" asked May "If I win, you'll duel me again today." said Culex, obviously setting the stakes slow.  
"Sounds reasonable, and If I win?" asked May, but Culex seemed to have ignored her as he pulled a small puppet. He looked as his hands with his gloves on. He covered the sight of his hands and the puppet with his back, then the puppet seemed to be walking. May looked up and noticed the puppet had strings attached to it. The strings glowed green and moved as the puppet walked forwards. May wondered how it could move forwards, but then notice the strings were extending as it moved forwards. May realized Culex must be a great puppeteer. She wondered how she could do it, but with him blocking the sight of the strings that she assumed were coming from his fingers. Due to Crowler being too busy with the papers, and the fact that papers covered the puppet, he could easily steal the answers. Then, Culex just pulled the strings as if rewinding them. Then he covered the view from the puppet and stayed like that for a few seconds. Then, he stashed the puppet in his pocket and pulled the paper.  
"I believe you lost." said Culex, grinning. May sighed.  
"Fine, when do you wanna duel?" asked May. Culex chuckled.  
"Tonight, when the sun sets. For now, let's just copy these answers." said Culex. May nodded. Meanwhile, Izual looked at Jasmine, as he had finished some of his work.  
"How you doing?" asked Izual. She seemed a bit sleepy. Izual could tell Jasmine was not used to sleeping so little. He started wonder if she had even slept that night. He easily fell asleep, but it could have been harder for her. He noticed her slowly nodding off, resting her head on the desk. "Great…" As much as he hated to, he decided he had to not be a slacker for the day. He did owe Jasmine after all. He started working hard, to finish the paper. He was the last one to finish. He sighed as he turned it in to Crowler, who didn't really care. He walked to back to Jasmine, who still nodded. He sat and watched her sleep. He chuckled to himself.  
"We're even now." said Izual, smiling a bit. Then, he noticed Crowler was making an announcement.  
"Class, Duel Academy is going to hold a tournament. This tournament shall be testing some new technology to make the game more…realistic." said Crowler, everybody in the class started murmuring about this new technology. "This might increase the risk of injury of duels, and causing the duelist to feel actual pain. However! The price of the tournament is something I know you would all enjoy." Everybody quieted down to hear what it was.  
"The price for the tournament is…Raviel, Lord of Phantasm!" said Dr. Crowler. Everybody was left speechless. A Sacred Beast? Being used as a PRICE!? This was unheard of. Lot's of whispering started occurring as Crowler grinned. "The tournament shall be held on Monday, so you have the week to prepare and to sign up if you would like to be in it. And with that, class ends." As if on cue, the whole class started leaving the room, considering the tourney. 


	14. Shady Shade

Chapter 15: Shady Shade

Izual looked at the sleeping Jasmine. He'd figure he would let her sleep. He patted her head and she mumbled a bit. He smiled as he left the class with the rest of them. Rather than go to his room and rest, or study as some were doing, he merely went to the woods and sat on a branch. He slowly made sure to inspect the surroundings, making sure no traps were around. He lied down on the branch and enjoyed the shade of the tree, leaving him in a cool spot on the sunny day. He looked through his cards and smiled as he found a particular one he liked.  
"You and I will get that Sacred Beast, can't let Culex get the best of us." said Izual to card. "And to think, I used a DEFENSE deck over you, must've been crazy eh?" There seemed to be a small moment of silence. "Yeah, yeah." He slowly placed his deck back on his pocket and started enjoying the spot. It was nice and relaxing, so much that he started feeling sleepy. While he did get some sleep from last night, it was considerably less than his usual amount. He slowly let the feelings of sleepiness come to him and fell asleep on the tree.

Izual slowly moved around in what seemed to be an endless plane. He looked around and saw nothing for miles. The surrounding itself looked unreal.  
"Where am I?" asked Izual as he walked around.  
"Izzy." Izual quickly turned around. He could have sworn he heard something.  
"Who's there?" asked Izual trying to find anyone, but to no alas.  
"Izzy!" This time, the voice sounded if he wanted to get Izual's attention.  
"Who ever it, show up right now!" shouted Izual. He walked forwards a bit then, he tried to look around and saw no one. Then, he felt someone poke him. He immediately jumped forward in scare. Then he turned around and saw a figure in a black robe with the hoodie down.  
"Hey Izzy." said the figure and Izual just looked shock as he took more steps back.  
"It can't be…you…you are dead…Shade!?" he asked as he noticed at the figure. Shade looked like a zombie. He seemed to have no expression, except or a small smile.  
"Things aren't as they seen, but sometimes we have to accept some truths." said Shade. Izual still remained scared.  
"What do you mean?" asked Izual taking more steps back.  
"I'm gone, but I'm not. Lilith is more closer to you than I'm, then again, my body is close to you, as close as Lilith." said Shade. Izual didn't understand. His body? What did he mean by that?  
"Lilith? How can she be close to me? Isn't she trapped?" asked Izual. Shade shook his head.  
"She is closer to you than ever, try asking Darius, after all, he knows his people." said Shade. Izual remained his confused face.  
"Who's Darius?" asked Izual, still confused. Somehow, the thought of how he got to his current location , or how he is talking to someone he killed were pushed to the back of his head.  
"It seems my time is up Izzy." said Shade as he walked towards Izual stopped in front of him. "It was nice talking to you…" Izual still couldn't believe. Then, he watched Shade pulled his sword. It was the same one he wielded that faithful night. Then, he stabbed Izual right through the stomach. He felt extreme pain in his stomach and as he staggered back. "What …was that for?" he asked, as things became to become fuzzy.  
"Call it payback." and with that everything turned black once more.  
…

Jaden poked the sleeping Izual. Izual quickly opened his and stumbled like crazy, falling on the floor with a look of great fear.  
"Whoa, you okay?" asked Jaden. Izual just looked up, as if in shock. He seemed to be panting. What….what happened? he asked in his mind. Had he really seen the person he had killed? Had really talked to Shade? But how? Where did he go? His mind wandered through all this question as he looked at his stomach, and noticed it was fine. "Yo?" said Jaden, and Izual looked up to see Jaden sticking his hand out to help him up. He remained very pale, almost unsure of what had happened and if it had happened. Somehow, he found a way to push the thoughts away for at least a moment.

"What are you doing here?" asked Izual, as he still felt strange after all of that. Jaden chuckled.  
"Well, the author decided to give me a cameo, so yay. You didn't come to the dorm last night, and the guys and I got worried. We were going to ask you, but you came too late in the morning. You okay? You look like you seen a ghost." said Jaden. Izual looked at him. He would have smiled at the irony, had he not been so scared.  
"You could say that" said Izual, as he took Jaden's hand and got up. "Thanks." He let go of Jaden, and scratched his head, as he pondered many thoughts. Did all that really happened? Was Shade…is Shade alive? he thought.  
"C'mon, some food will get you good to go." said Jaden as they started walking towards the Ra dormitory. In their way, they notice Culex lying against a wall of the main classroom, surrounded by many Obelisk girls.  
"…He would always say, 'You've got to be honest; if you can fake that, you've got it made.'" said Culex, all the girls laughing.  
"How does he do that?" asked Izual. Despite him being on the new guys around, he already managed to get a good amount of the Obelisk girl's attention.  
"I don't know. 'Tis a gift I assume. One thing is for sure definitely a ladies man." said Jaden. Izual nodded. As they moved closer to their dorm, the last saw thing was Culex slapping a girl's behind. Izual and Jaden shook their heads.  
"So, you going to enter the tournament?" asked Izual as they entered the room.  
"I don't see why not, get a chance at a sacred beast? Sign me up." said Jaden, chuckling. "Let's work on our decks, eh?" Izual nodded.

…

A few hours later, night was around. May looked at the full moon from the docks with her duel disk at hand.  
"Lovely night, isn't it?" said Culex as he arrived. May turned around to face him.  
"Yes it is. So are you ready for the duel?" asked May as she prepared herself.  
"Maybe. Up for a wager?" asked Culex, May sighed.  
"What is it with you and wagers?" asked May. Culex shrugged.  
"I play to win." responded Culex.  
"So what are the wagers?" asked May, curious. Culex grinned. "How about this: If I win, you'll give me a kiss." said Culex. May rose an eyebrow, and let out a laugh.  
"And if I win, you'll never hit on me?" suggested May. Culex stopped grinning.  
"Sounds good. Go first." said Culex as May started playing.  
"Play Gearfried the Iron Knight in attack mode and set spell or trap. End." said May. Culex chuckled.  
"I wonder what that is…" said Culex as he drew. "But I have the card to stop this. I play Mind Control" As he played his spell cards, puppet strings appeared on Gearfried's armor. The strings slowly controlled him to walk to Culex's side of the field. Culex chuckled as he held the strings of Gearfried.  
"Mind Control allows me to take your monster though I can't tribute it or attack." said Culex. May looked at him confused.  
"Then what CAN you do with it?" asked May. Culex chuckled.  
"Use it as a Martyr, of course. I summon Mysterious Puppeteer." said Culex, as the purple-robed puppeteer appeared. May still looked confused.  
"As a martyr? But wouldn't that require a tribute?" asked May. Culex chuckled.  
"Incorrect. Let me show you. I play Gift of Martyr" said Culex as Gearfried's seemed to disintegrate "What happened to Gearfried?" asked May, wondering what was the fate of her monster.  
"Gift of Martyr allows me to send monster cards off my side of the field, and increase a monster by the attack of the monster I sent. Seeing as it was not a tribute, Mind Control has no problem." said Culex, gleaming as his puppeteer grew in attack power. His weak 1500 attack power into 3300. "This power boost is merely till the end of the turn, but that's okay." Culex declared an attack, and from the hands of the puppeteer, green glowing strings appeared. They elongated until a puppet appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It glowed green, similar to the strings. The puppet was in the shape of a small boy with a knife. The puppeteer commanded the puppet to charge straight at May, the knife pierced her leg. She groaned in pain a tad. She was just glad it was a hologram, despite the pain feeling somewhat real.

Culex: 4000 May: 700

"I will set a pair magic or trap card face-down, and call it a turn." said Culex. May growled. How could she lose over three quarters of her life points in the first turn? She drew a card.  
"I play The Warrior Returning Alive." said May. "It allows me to retrieve warrior from the graveyard and add it to my hand, so Gearfried comes back." She added Gearfried back to her hand. "I play Marauding Captain." A young warrior with blonde hair rose, wearing a light armor with a pair twin blades. Then Culex's life points rose.

Culex: 4500 May: 700

"How'd you get life points?" asked May.  
"Every time you or I summon normal summon a monster, I get 500 life points. That's Mysterious Puppeteer's effect." said Culex. May sighed as she summoned Gearfried. "Whoa, you can only normal summon once per turn"  
"It's a special summoned, that's MY monster's special effect. It allows to special summon a Level 4 or lower monster from my hand." said May. May flipped her face-down card, The A. Forces. "This card increases all warrior monsters on my side of the field by 200 for every warrior or Spellcaster in my side of the field. I count two, so that gives them each a nice 400 attack bonus. " Marauding Captain's attack rose to 1600, as Gearfried's rose to 2200.  
"This is gonna hurt…." said Culex as he watched May declare an attack with Gearfried. The Iron Knight ran straight for the Puppeteer and slashed it in half with ease. Then Marauding Captain went straight for Culex's life points. He slashed twice, once with each sword. He groaned in pain.

Culex: 2200 May: 700

"My turn!" shouted Culex as he drew a card and smiled. "I play Rogue Doll!" the strange purple-cloaked doll appeared on the field. "Attack Marauding Captain." The Rogue Doll threw a fireball at Marauding Captain. The blonde warrior was not dumb, as he threw a sword at doll, piercing it, thus a kamikaze. However, the from the remains of the battle a glowing circle appeared, and Magical Marionette appeared out of it. "The wonders Magician's Circle can do. " said Culex as he noticed Gearfried's attack power dropped to 2000, since Marauding Captain left the field. The marionette rushed towards Gearfried. He slashed it in half, but the puppet itself exploded, killing both monsters. Culex was once again, open. He sighed and ended his turn by setting a card. May chuckled.  
"Very big let down, Culex." said May as he smiled at her card. Ring of Destruction, not bad. This could help me out. she thought. She set it down then played Command Knight on the field. A female knight appeared on the field. She seemed very strong, with a leather hat and a brown cape. Her own attack rose to 1600 by her own effect, then to 1800 because of A. Forces.  
"This is gonna hurt…." said Culex, May chuckled as her knight ran straight at Culex, and slashed him.

Culex: 400 May: 700

Culex chuckled. "Time to end this." said Culex as he summoned a strange puppet that looked like Chuckie. It was a young boy in blue overalls holding an axe as big as his body. He had a solid 1600 attack, but it wasn't enough to take down Command knight.  
"Now, I flip my face-down card, Mask of Brutality!" said Culex as a hideous masked got equipped on Command Knight's face. Her attack rose to 2800, while her defense went down to 900.  
"Why would you power up my monster?" asked May but her question shortly got answered by Culex's Shield and Sword card. The Malice Doll became 1700 attack, while Command Knight became 900, however, A. Forces still rose her attack to 1100, thus making her survive a blow by the doll.  
"That's only enough to drop me to 100, it's not over." said May. Culex chuckled as he played another card from the field, Shrink. May looked shocked. That was an awfully rare card.  
"How'd you get that?" asked May as she noticed her knight became a puny 550 attack monster. Culex just chuckled.  
"I 'unno. Now attack for game?" said Culex as his doll ran to Command Knight. May looked at her Ring of Destruction face-down. She knew she could ring her Command Knight, which would inflict enough to damage to beat Culex but not herself, however she did a different play. "I play Ring of Destruction on Malice Doll of Demise" said May as a ring of grenades appeared on the Malice Doll and it exploded, giving both duelist 1600 damage thus ending the game in a tie. Culex growled but then looked at her as she grinned and walked past by.  
"Wait…you could have won the game!" said Culex as he watched her walk past him.  
"I know." said May, leaving the docks.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Culex as he watched her walk away.  
"Gotta work for it, puppet boy." said May and with that, she was gone. 


	15. The Sexy Duel

-1Chapter 15: A Sexy Duel

A/N: Hmm long chappie and fast update? Don't get used it. It was just a coincidence.

It was a nice Sunday afternoon as Izual walked through the forest. "I seem to be going to the forest a lot lately…" thought Izual, collecting his thoughts. He looked up at the purple-ish sky, signifying the sunset was coming. He smiled. He always enjoyed sunsets, it something he always use to do with… his thought disappeared as he crashed against someone, by not paying attention where he was going. He stumbled backwards and fell down. He scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry…" said Izual, then he noticed it was Suri. He chuckled. "If we keep meeting like this we are gonna need some helmets…" Suri looked at him and smiled.

"What are you doing in this part of the forest?" she asked with her innocent smile. Izual slowly stood up and walked towards Suri, who remained on the ground.

"Just taking a walk, helps me think." said Izual as he offered his hand to help her up. She gladly took it and stood up. "What about you?"

"Taking a break from studying with Bastion." said Suri as she let go of his hand. Izual rose his eyebrow.

"Studying with Bastion? The guy is a genius." said Izual, seeing the image of them studying.  
"Next Albert Einstein I say. Yeah, I been spending a lot of time with him lately, closest friend I have in the academy." said Suri. This caught Izual's attention.

"Why not spend time with me?" he blurted out, unsure of why. He could never understand this girl. He had only talked to her twice, yet she had already caught his attention. Just looking into her lovely green eyes brought back so many memories, most of which he couldn't access without thinking of Shade, which he incredibly disliked, but knew he was going to some day. Just seeing her face brought strange feelings to Izual. A strange warm, fuzzy feeling within him, making it a bit awkward for him. While he blamed it on the fact she was extremely beautiful, he knew there had to be something more than that.

"What?" asked Suri, with a confused face. It appeared as if she couldn't make out the statement. Izual let out a sigh of relief.

"I said, how come you're spending so much time with him?" repeated Izual, curious. It was as if her smile faded for a moment, but came back almost instantly.

"He's great and funny, when he doesn't lose me in complex stuff that is. 'Sides, he's been helping me a lot lately. He even gave me a tour of the school." She said, smiling.

"I could have given you a tour if you had asked…" he said, in a low voice, mostly to himself. Then he realized what he said. He punished himself mentally, while asking himself why he had said that. Was he really feeling this feeling of…Jealousy?

"Huh? Speak up, or else I won't be able to hear." said Suri, with a curious face. Izual knew he had to do it. He took a deep breath.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked, and for a brief moment, he could see a sparkle in her eyes.

"Maybe." she said as she rested against a tree. He heard the word "maybe" but that didn't answer anything.

"Maybe? Maybe yes, or maybe not?" asked Izual, growing highly. Suri just gave him a playful smile.

"You'll have to figure that on your own, eh?" said Suri. Izual groaned.

"Your name doesn't ring a bell, but your appearance does." said Izual, confused a tad.

"I'm pretty girl, I'm sure you seen many of those." said Suri, playing around with the subject.

"But you're not like the other girls…" said Izual, trying to find reason in his questioning.

"So are you going to be on the tournament?" asked Suri, skillfully changing subjects. Izual looked at her and sighed.

"Yeah, I registered the other day. How about you?" asked Izual. Suri chuckled.

"Registered. I think it's time I take my leave…" And with that she started leaving.

"Wait where you going?" asked Izual.

"Girl's dorm. I'm sleepy, I'll catch you tomorrow." said Suri.

"Wait! Why wouldn't you answer the original question?" asked Izual.  
"Because it's not worth you remembering, then it's not worth saying." said Suri and with that she left a confused Izual.

…

A group of students looked at the papers hanging on the walls on Monday morning. The tournament was taking over class time. There was a lot of people signed up. Izual looked at his opponent's name, Tainji Musterblake. _Huh, rhymes with Justin Timberlake._ thought Izual as he noticed that he was second bracket.  
"What's that mean?" asked Izual, confused. Bastion chuckled behind him.  
"It means you get to duel during the afternoon, so go get some rest." said Bastion. "I'm second bracket as well, so I'm going to go fix my deck. Want to join me?" Izual nodded and they went to duel. They spend the morning fixing the decks till the night when they went to the designated area. It was the same area where Jaden had dueled Chazz. There, they found his group of friends. They found Jaden with a bandage around his arms, and several other injuries.

"What happened?" asked Bastion, surprised at Jaden's injury.  
"The duel. It's more real than you think. Jaden barely managed to escape it, but it was probably worse for the loser. " said Christy.

"What happened to the loser?" asked Izual, very curious.  
"He got burned, badly, by Flame Wingman's fire." said Jaden. Bastion and Izual looked confused.

"But it's only a hologram…" said Izual but before they could answer they called his name to duel. "Gotta go win, later." He stepped into the arena and saw his opponent, dressed stylish for the duel.

"Ready to duel?" asked Izual, his hands glowed but instead of the usual pink, it was a darker glower as if tainted.

"I was born sexy…err….ready I mean." said Tainji as he drew his cards. "I'll go first. I will set one sexy monster down, and two face-down. Your go." said Tainji. Izual looked with a face that said the classic _'wtf? What's wrong with this guy? Stupid author…_ Izual looked at his hand and smiled. This duel could end quick.

"I play Horus, the Black Flame Dragon LV 6." said Izual as a small black fire appeared, seeming to give off heat. But from the flame a mechanical figure slowly emerged head first. At first glance it seemed to be a hawk, a hawk with such a piercing red stare that one couldn't help but feel as if doom was about to fall. But the ominous feeling almost became comical, prompting nothing but laughter at the round shape that seemed to waddle out of the misleading black flames. Due to its weight, it seemed unlikely that its short stubby wings would be able to support it in the air. The only semi-dangerous thing about the avian creature would be it's talons, seemingly covered in an extra coat of metal, which matched with other pieces of its metal casing. But even without them, it wouldn't pose much of a threat, because that was all it had. It snapped its beak menacingly, trying to intimidate the opponent with it's glowing red stare, but all it did was prompt a laugh. 1600 attack wasn't much to worry about. Tainji laughed as well some of the audience.

"What an unsexy beast!" said Tainji, looking at the mockery of a monster. "What's that going to do? Sit on my monster?" Izual face had no expression, as his hand glowed darker as the beast roared. The fat hawk did an incredible leap, that seemed impossible with all it's weight, and seemed to float over the set monster as it started falling. The monster flipped revealing to be a lady with black dress and fancy black tipped to once side. Her hand seemed to be burning, but she apparently. Despite the fact that a big fat metal chicken with dangerous talons coming straight at her from above, she didn't seem to mind. As the bird landed and crushed her, waves from the impact spread out, shaking everything in distance, as if a bird that heavy had actually appeared.

"You monster! You killed the sexy Fire Sorcerer! At least her equally hot effect activates." said Tainji as from her grave fire came and hit Izual with enough force to knock him down. However, there was something wrong. This fire. It wasn't a hologram. His shirt caught on fire and he moved franticly about. He rolled in circle the till the fire was out, which took some of his shirt, as well burnt him a bit. Tainji smiled as he remove from play two cards off his hand as a cost for Fire Sorcerer's effect.

Izual: 3200

Tainji: 4000.

"It's what happens to unsexy people." said Tainji. Izual grew angry and so did his monster.  
"I set a magic or trap and end my turn." said Izual and that triggered something in the bird. The short rotund bird gave out a silent cry as it was once more engulfed in black fire. But unlike before, its silhouette could still be seen in the center of the dark mass. It twisted and writhed in the flames heat, seeming to grow and elongate within the ever moving expanse of the fire. Once more the head was the first to emerge, and the once smooth metal head seemed to be etched with feathers, arching back away from a sharp looking beak that cemented it's resemblance to a bird of prey even more. Its round egg-like body was no where to be seen, instead replaced with a far larger and more elongated torso. Each one of the formerly stubby wings now stretched at least the length of its body, wispy trails of red energy seemed to rise off the sharp metal feathers. The talons were larger, more pronounced, and seemed to dig into the ground in anticipation, a reptilian-type tail thrashing against the ground behind it. Unlike its former incarnation, this was not a beast to laugh at, and its attack of 2300 made it all too clear that it could, and would, deliver the promised defeat. The crowd looked at the monster, no more laughter around. Even Tainji looked at the beast with some fear, but merely chuckled. "Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 6 is nothing to chuckle at." said Izual as his turn ended, two big mechanical eye balls rose from the ground, with mechanical arms to it's side.

"So now you have one strong unsexy beast." said Tainji, as he drew a card. "Since I removed my two D.D. Scout Planes, they come at the End Phase of the turn and since they were removed at the end phase of YOUR turn, they come back there, perfect timing for my turn. Now meet my very sexy Amazon Archer!" A young woman appeared, with grayish brown hair. She seemed to be wearing skirt,, but it looked like it had been cut along the side and tied together at the waistband on the one side, giving it a lopsided look, but allowing the archer the most movement possible. She seemed to be wearing a tailored coat so it would only reach a few inches lower than her very small tube top she was wearing, leaving a good amount of skin showing in her skinny waist. Many of the crowd's male population cheered. Izual looked at it, and smiled a bit, but he felt darkness again, yet kept grinning. Male instinct before darkness, after all.

"I will use her effect." said Tainji as the two D.D. Scout Planes turned into arrows with sharp tips. "By sending two monsters from my side of the field, I can inflict 1200 damage to you. Go, my sexy archer, shoot him!" The archer loaded the arrows and shot Izual with deadly accuracy, hitting right in the gut. His eyes widened at the pain. The arrows pierced deep, as the blood started trickling. _What's happening…these…these are real arrows!_ thought Izual as he fell to the ground.

Izual: 2000

Tainji: 4000

Izual knew he couldn't remove those arrows or he would bleed too much and lose consciousness. Despite the piercing pain, he had to remove them. He remained on the floor, the crowd silent. The tension was high, and it was killing the crowd. Jaden smiled. He knew what he had to do.

"He's on the floor, quick, somebody teabag him!" said Jaden, and everyone started at him, even Izual, who was in extreme pain, stared at him. "Don't blame me! Blame the author." The crowd sighed. At least it broke the tension.

Izual slowly stood up, blood dripping from where the arrow pierced him. He needed to win this fast.

"God, unsexy people sure manage to stay up a lot." said Tainji. "I play the Mask of Brutality on my sexy archer. You are obviously not worth seeing her face." The beautiful archer's face was covered by a egg-shaped mask colored orange with a green section on top. The mouth had evil teeth with a spike on the chin. Claws were coming out of it's eye sockets. "This raises my very sexy Amazon's attack by 1000, making it 2400. This makes it stronger than your pathetic dragon. I will set a magic or trap face-down and now, my Amazon, destroy him." The Amazon Archer pulled out another arrow and aimed at metal bird on Izual's side of the field. Just before it fired the arrow, the masked changed. White horns appeared around the mask, five in total. This mask barely covered all the face. The claws had disappeared and blue glow came from the eyes. You could still see some skin between bottom part of the mouth and the upper. As the Amazon shot the arrow, the great bird shot out a burst of flames that incinerated the arrows as well the archer itself. Tainji stepped back from the flames, as they were a lot hotter than regular flames.

Tainji: 3400

Izual: 2000

"What happened?" asked Tainji, confused. Izual grinned a little bit.

"I activated my trap, Mask of Weakness. It reduced your monster's attack by 700, making it too weak for my Horus. And since you ended your turn …" Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6 roared madly and enraged. It flashing briefly with a white light before bursting into flame. But this flame was no ordinary fire, lacking the bright reds and yellows and instead, was a myriad of darker hues, the light taking a nose dive toward the indigo and violet end of the color spectrum. The flames were so hot, that Izual seemed to be sweating already. Within the dark inferno an even darker shape had begun to materialize, the exact silhouette hard to distinguish through the tongues of flame that surrounded it. Two metallic feathered looking wings ripped through the upper portion of the remaining fire, the slightly reddish colored steel gaining unearthly blue highlight in the glow cast by the licking tongues of flame. With a beat of its wings, Izual's monster shot out of the fire, the downdraft caused by the propelling stroke extinguishing the steadily dying flame in one huge draft of air. The metallic dragon-like being hovered in the air for a moment or two, wisps of the strange fire seeming to cling to the edges and sharp angles formed by its metal casing before it settled down on the field in front of Izual with an audible thump, the bird like head turning to stare at the opposing field that could only promise one thing. Complete and utter defeat. The final level. Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 8. With it's 3000 attack, it roared and Tainji backed away. Izual chuckled. Tainji's worried seemed to disappear as he recalled his face-down card.

"Very big monster, too bad it won't do anything." said Tainji as he flipped his face-down card, Offerings to the Doomed. Very rare-looking orange artifacts appeared. "With this card, I can-What's going on!?" shouted Tainji as he stopped mid-sentence and jumped away from the card, as the giant dragon shot out black fire against the rare artifacts and melted them, causing extreme heat on Tainji's side of the field.  
"Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV 8 does not take kindly to spell cards. He can choose to negate any he, or I, want to." said Izual and Tainji started panicking.  
"But but but" stuttered Tainji as the dragon slowly walked towards, stomping the ground as he did, as in the end was coming. "If you shoot that fire, I will die! And with my life, so goes my sexy body!" Izual glared, the pain from the arrow as well as the blood leaving was getting to him. He clenched his fist as the giant dragon leaped and landed in front of Tainji, causing a big shockwave, as if a little earthquake. Tainji jumped. The dragon wrapped it's tail Tainji and started walking as Tainji tried to get out. Izual moved closer to his dragon as it started walking towards the nearest wall. The crowd wondered what it was doing then they saw him fling Tainji from the tail into the wall, creating a solid hit and shout of pain from Tainji. He crushed some of the wall, Izual looked up.  
"Who's sexy now, bitch?" said Izual, the crowd just looking at Tainji. Izual backed up to his original spot. He looked at the life points.

Tainji: 300

Izual: 2000

He knew Tainji didn't lose but he could tell Tainji had at least lost consciousness.

"Tainji Musterblake, you have ten seconds to get up or suffer a default loss." said a voice in the intercom. Izual knew he had won, but the blood-defiance started getting to him, forming a small puddle on the floor. The seconds passed and Izual got declared the winner. The crowd was surprised but clapped at the great duel. Izual slowly left the area, almost stumbling and he encountered a worried Jasmine.  
"Izual!" she said, looking at him. "What are you doing?"

"Bringing sexy back." he said, smiling as he became unconscious and fell side ways, so the arrows wouldn't get pierced deeper by Jasmine, into Jasmine's arms.


	16. Adam and Eve?

-1Chapter 16: Adam and...Eve?

Izual walked around the plane he had seen in his dream again. "How did I get here?" asked Izual to himself.

"_Yo Izzy._"

Izual turned around trying to find who said that. He knew there was only person other than here in this plane. Then, he felt something on his body. In an instant, he was wrapped by wires, immobilizing him completely. Then, his body turned around to face Shade. He seemed to keep his "no-emotion" face like last time.

"Hey Izzy, how's things?" asked Shade, swinging the sword from the Neos around a bit. Izual's eyes widened.

"Shade! Are you…are you alive?" asked Izual. He needed to ask, and needed to get an answer.

"Wrong question." said Shade as he lifted his sword and pointed at the middle of Izual's forehead.

"What are you doing?" said Izual, trying to move, but couldn't because of the wire.

"You'll thank me later." said Shade as he pulled back his arm and rammed the sword into Izual's forehead. The sword seemed to pierce directly then all turned black, and Izual's memory started playing in his mind. He saw the fight between him and Shade and just as it passed it all turn black once more.

…

Izual opened his eyes, the thoughts of his dream pushed aside to the back of his minds. He sat up, and scratched the back of his head.

"Man, it feels like if I had brought sexy back" said Izual as he examined his chest. He noticed the place where arrows were was healed, with a single stitch. Then, he looked at his location. He was sitting on a bed like the ones in the hospital, except the room had five beds with other injured people. He assumed it was the people from the injured duels that got there. He wondered why there were only five people here. He knew a lot more people would have gotten injured. Maybe a tad too injured, or so Izual thought about it. It was possible, he supposed, that they could have been sent out of the island for better care. Regardless, Izual stood from the bed and looked the other people. It was people he didn't recognize except for one person. He walked to the bed and looked at her.

"Suri." he said, looking at Suri sleeping peacefully. She had an innocent face in her slumber , with her hair pushed to the sides gently. Her shirt seemed to be rolled up to her chest, thus showing the skin of her abdomen. Izual wondered why she was there until he saw it. A long deep slash on her the right side of her abdomen. He noticed it stitched up. He wondered how long had he been in this place, and what was the current time. He could tell by the overall darkness in the room, except for the few lights, that it was night. "Even while she's sleeping, she's cute." said Izual as he softly placed his hand on the left side of her abdomen. Then, he felt something. As if with instinct, he moved his hand a bit and pressed on a bit with his thumb, while moving in a circular motion. Suri gave an unconscious smile, enjoying the feeling. She mumbled a few unclear words but there was one that seemed clear enough.  
"mm...Izzy" said Suri, in her sleep then Izual stopped and took a few steps back. No one called him that except that people who were close to him, and even then, all those of were either far away or just plain dead. He stumbled back, as he started thinking of his past memories with Suri, trying to think back. And finally, the light started glow. He was about to get a flashback, but he stumbled upon a small glass on the floor. He fell on a chair with wheels on the bottom. The chair moved rapidly against the wall and crashed, where Izual hit his head and fell unconscious.

…

The rays of light shined brightly as the crowd waited for the next duel to commence. Bastion took a seat and waited.

"I'm surprised people are still participating in this tourney. It's insane." said Bastion to himself. He had been one of the lucky ones. Due to the nature of his opponent's deck, the injuries were minimal. Not everyone was so lucky, so he thanked luck for it. For once, Bastion actually thanked luck. One of the unlucky ones was Culex, which was already complaining. It seems as many people have dropped out of the tourney after witnessing the first round, and because of this the brackets were mixed. Now, Culex wasn't exactly hurt from the duel of the other day. He had minor injuries, but nothing too bad. However, after the duel in the afternoon, he was quite bloody. Some of his uniform with slashes, bleeding from each slash. This also left him exhausted. He felt drained out his energy, as he was facing a duelist with a Chain Energy deck. He was complaining how he had to duel AGAIN that same day, but the administrators wouldn't listen. However, that was not what made him so angry. Sure, he was exhausted, but when he found out that those who were in the nurse's room did NOT have to duel that day, angered him a lot. He knew Izual was in that group of people, and felt that Izual not participating was incredibly unfair. He growled.

…

Meanwhile, Izual opened his eyes to find a nurse looking at him.

"You okay?" asked the Nurse. Izual looked around, noticing the bright daylight. He also noticed everyone in the room had left, except for this nurse. He scratched the back of his head as he realized he was in the same place as before.

"Where's everyone?" he asked to the nurse. She shook her head.  
"They left. You should probably leave as well." said the Nurse. Izual agreed. He stood up, thanked her for her kindness and started walking away. He tried to remember the events of last night, though he could only remember the bump. Both the dream and anything before the bump were a tad blurry. Then, because he wasn't paying attention, he didn't notice a certain brunette sticking out her foot which caused him to trip. His eyes widened in surprise as he fell to the ground and sighed.

"Love that dirt, eh Izual?" asked Jasmine, standing next to him. He smiled a bit as he stood up.

"Can't get enough of it…" said Izual, a bit angry then he recalled the events after the duel with Tainji, or at least he remembered fainting near her. "What happened last night?"  
"You fainted." said Jasmine, recalling the events. "Those arrows pierced deep, though I managed to get some help, so it's all good."

"Thanks…" said Izual. He need to come up with some way of repaying her back one of these days.

"Hey, no problem. Life would be boring with out ya, pervert." said Jasmine, grinning. Izual sighed.

"This again?" said Izual but an idea came to mind. The grin in Jasmine soon disappear as Izual started tickling her.

"Hey, wait, I'm ticklish!" she said, trying to fight him off, but to not avail. Izual was too skilled at tickling. Meanwhile, Suri was walking she noticed Izual. She was about to talk to him but then noticed he was busy with Jasmine. She seemed a bit disappointed but walked a different way, to not disturb them. It shouldn't bother her anyways, so she walked, many things on her mind. She finally settled on a tree and decided to take a nap. Hours passed.

…

Suri was awoken by the sounds of struggle. She yawned a bit as she looked around. "Hmm?" she said, as she noticed Culex holding an unconscious Obelisk Blue student. Culex chuckled.

"Poison works excellently." said Culex to himself as he looked at the Obelisk Blue student. "With you out of the way, I won't have to duel today. Much easier win." Suri seemed curious but angry.  
"Hey, that's cheating." said Suri as she walked near him. Culex turned around.

"It's you." said Culex, grinning. "Just forget you saw anything, 'kay?" Suri wasn't pleased.

"How about no?" asked Suri. Culex sighed as he snapped his fingers as poison-tipped senbon popped out of nowhere, hitting Suri's back. She bit her lip to not shout in pain, then noticed that she felt limp and fell back. Culex chuckled. He picked up Suri and the Obelisk.  
"What's going on? Where are you taking us? Why can't I move?" asked Suri as Culex arrived at an old small warehouse. He opened the door and through the unconscious obelisk at one side then Suri on the other side, making her land on her back, facing the roof.

"I am going to leave you here for now." said Culex. "Till I win." Suri looked at him.

"You are evil, you know that?" said Suri, glaring at him. Culex chuckled.

"I am, aren't I?" said Culex, proud of himself. He walked towards her and looked down at her.  
"You were always pretty hot girl." said Culex, looking at her body. He was about to leave when she said something.

"You hit me with poison then hit on me?" asked Suri, giving him a strange smile. Culex chuckled.

"Just stating a fact." said Culex, recalling past events. "Besides, it doesn't matter. You already got enough guys on your back, you don't need me." He turned around and started heading towards the door.

"Cu…" said Suri, almost as if an playfully upset tone. "Don't say that." Culex turned around and rose an eyebrow.  
"Hmm?" said Culex. He had to be careful, Suri was a clever one, and with a body to match.

"It's just things with Shade…and…and…" said Suri, unable to find another reason.

"And Izual?" asked Culex. Suri sighed.

"Izual is… I don't know. He won't remember who I am, it's like I am nothing to him now." she said, obviously upset.

"Izual was never good at seeing what he already had." said Culex. "What about Shade? He is dead." Suri sighed.

"Just…leave." said Suri. "Please." Culex looked almost upset. He sighed as well as he dropped a small sphere which released some gas. With that, he left. He ran through the forest, thinking about all the things then he felt a blast of sound hitting him against a tree. He groaned in pain.

"Damn it." said Culex, then he noticed Izual coming.

"Who is in that house you just gassed?" asked Izual. Culex growled.

"None of your concern. It's all for Lilith's sake." said Culex, chuckling. Izual lifted his hand so his palm would face Culex.

"Why do you help that demon?" asked Izual. "You have already seen what happens to her helpers."

"Do you even know who she is?" asked Culex and Izual looked at him.

"A succubus, the worst of them." said Izual. Culex shook his head.

"Yes, but do you know who she is? Her story? her life?" asked Culex, and Izual seemed unable to provide an answer.

"She's a demon who has caused me, and the whole world great pain." said Izual, angry at Culex.

"How can you judge someone without even knowing their past?" asked Culex and he was right. Izual knew this.

"Then tell me her past." said Izual. Culex chuckled as he walked towards Izual.  
"Do you remember your bible stories? I am sure they taught you some of them. Do you recall the story of Adam and Eve?" asked Culex as he neared Izual. Izual started taking steps back.

"Yes…" said Izual as he moved back, away from Culex.

"What if I were to tell you that Eve was not the first woman?" asked Culex, as he started moving faster.  
"What are you saying?" asked Izual, moving back even faster.

"What if I told you that Adam's first woman was not Eve but actually Lilith?" asked Culex. Izual seemed confuse but then he felt a sharp point on his feet. He looked down. It was a senbon, tipped with venom, similar to that used against Suri. In a few seconds, Izual fell down, limp and paralyzed.

"You are crazy." said Izual, looking at Culex as he picked him up.  
"No. Lilith was Adam's first woman, and man, was she gorgeous. She would leave you breathless." said Culex as he arrived at the gas house.

"Aren't you going to tell me the rest of the story?" asked Izual as he noticed Culex stopped talking.

"I would, except it be info dump, and Agent Eye would kill me for it. So, you'll have to wait." said Culex. Izual sighed. Then, he noticed Suri and the other Obelisk on the floor. They both had this drugged-look to their faces.  
"What did you to them?" asked Izual, shocked. The obelisk seemed to squirm around a bit, mumbling unclear words while Suri just giggled, while laying on her back.  
"Just so they won't complain." said Culex.  
"Are you going to drug me too?" asked Izual, a bit scared. With his paralysis, he knew he'd be unable to move.

"Nah, I got something more comical for our readers." said Culex as he threw Izual on top of Suri. He landed on her sloppily, unable to respond due to the paralysis. Due to the way Culex threw him, his face landed right on her chest. Izual's face turned red almost instantly. Suri stopped giggling and looked at him confusedly for a moment. Then started giggling again. "You're funny, Izzy!"

"Well if that doesn't scare Agent Eye's female reviewers away, then nothing will." said Culex. He looked at Izual one last time. "Lucky loser." he sighed. "Maybe one of Agent Eye's fan will make some side story with some one-sided CuSu, hmm yeah." Then he chuckled. "Wow, never thought I would use the words "Agent", "Eye's" and "fan" all in the same sentence. Agent eye having fans, ha!" He chuckled as he left to claim his victory.


	17. Rivalry

-1Chapter 17: Rivalry

Culex yawned as he waited for him to be awarded the match. He knew, for a fact, that his opponent wouldn't show, and that was alright by him. He noticed one of the proctors who attended the day he was tested, who was helping organize the tournament, coming his way. The proctor stopped and declared him the victory. Culex chuckled and thanked the proctor as he started walking out but was stopped by May.

"Hold on there, rival." said May. Culex turned around and gave her a confused look

"Rival?" asked Culex. May nodded. "I haven't even beat you once, how can you consider me your rival?"

"Simple because you keep wanting to duel me to win, but that's not important. It looks a little odd that someone wouldn't show up to duel, especially against you." said May, with an inquisitive look in her eyes.

"Are you implying something?" asked Culex, responding to her with the same look she had.

"Yes. I smell foul play." said May. Culex chuckled as he pulled a small puppet, almost identical to the one he used to steal Crowler's papers with.

"I don't do Foul play. Personally, I like to call it strategic advantage." said Culex. May glared.

"But that's chea-" May stopped mid-sentenced as Culex put the puppet against her chest. "What are you doing?" Culex chuckled as from the puppet's mouth and limbs, several mechanical spiders came out and went inside her shirt.

"Bosom buddies. See ya later, _rival_." said Culex, laughing as May moved, trying to get the spiders away from her. She shouted to get them off, but couldn't and merely panicked. Culex left the room, and walked for a night stroll in the forest.

"Well that was fairly mean." said Culex, smiling a bit. "I wonder if Izual is enjoying his gift."

Izual sighed. He knew he would have to get revenge for this.

"Smile a little, Izzy-kun." said Suri, with almost a childish glee as she lifted her arms and used them to constrict and push Izual deeper in her bosom. Izual blushed more. He muffled something to her shirt. Then realized something. She was moving her arms. She wasn't paralyzed! But how? Right now, that was the least of Izual's worries. He kept trying to talk, but it all came muffled till Suri released her grasp. Izual took a nice big breath as his nose wasn't pressed down.

"Why are you so upset?" she asked, almost like a child. "Sum ego non pulchellus vobis(Am I not pretty to you)?" Izual looked at her, unsure of what to say. He was surprised at her talking latin, only person he knew who could speak Latin in this island was Culex, and he doubted that Culex would have taught her all that in a few seconds.

"How do you know latin?" he asked, as recovered his breath.

"Silly, it's my language." she said, smiling with her childish face. Izual's rose an eyebrow. Just who was this girl?"Can you help me sit up?" asked Izual. She giggled and lifted him a bit to sit her up.

Meanwhile, Jaden looked at May on the floor, panting. It had been quite a struggle to remove those mechanical spiders that lied next to May on the floor, smashed. Her clothes had some tears, but nothing too badly. She stood up and growled.

"I am going to kill that bas-" said May, but Jaden stopped him sentence.

"You okay?" asked Jaden. She turned to face him and glared.

"Do I look okay?" she asked. Jaden wasn't sure what to say. She always seemed so peaceful.

"I just never seen you angry." said Jaden, "That's all." May sighed.

"That guy angers me sometimes." said May, starting to get more calm. "Just a big troublemaker."

"Maybe you should get to know him before you start making accusations." said Jaden. May looked at him.

"What do you mean?" asked May, confused.

"Well, you never know why people act one way. Maybe they had some trouble in their past? I am just saying you should know who he is before you insult him, that's all." said Jaden. May thought about it. IT did make sense.

"But how?" asked May.

"Why not just ask him?" suggest Jaden. Sounded simple enough.

"Maybe, but he probably wouldn't even listen to me." said May.

"She might not listen to May, his rival but might listen to May, the hot duelist. Either way, it's your choice. I am gonna go okay?" said Jaden. "Later." With that, he started walking away as May pondered her thoughts. Meanwhile, Christy caught up with Jaden.

"I saw what you did back there, you really think Culex had trouble in his past?" asked Christy.

"Nope." said Jaden, grinning.

"So why did you tell her that?" asked Christy.

"I figured it be hilarious if she did it." said Jaden, chuckling. Christy chuckled.

Culex stopped near the border of the island and sat, resting against a tree. He liked the sound of waves crashing against the border. It was soothing.

"Man, I need to get out more…" said Culex to himself. Then, he noticed someone going through the bushes. He slowly noticed the figure coming out. It was May. Instantly, a grin came to his face. He noticed the tears in her close, though he had expected worse. He expected her to come and mad but was confused when she came with a grin.

"Hey Cu." said May. Culex was confused.

"Cu? What happened to rival?" asked Culex, as he noticed her sitting down next to him.

"You didn't like it." said May as she sat next to him, and started playing with his hair. "Beside, it's cute. It fits your appearance." Culex eyed her. He wasn't one to complain about compliments, however, he knew May wasn't that way.

"What about the puppet incident, with the spiders?" he asked, hoping to see some flinching by May. He noticed the smallest of twitches in her expression but she simply giggled. He smiled as she had already failed.

"That was just as joke, silly." said May, then she looked down with an almost flawless face of shyness. "Besides, it felt almost…good." Culex was caught off-guard. If it wasn't for the fact he knew it was fake, then he would be worried. He even started to doubt he actually saw the flinch. He decided to play back.

"I can do it again, if you'd like." said Culex, giving her an evil grin. May was caught off guard by this. "I would even do it more…personal." And that was the key blow. May opened her mouth to speak but no words. She wouldn't be taken down so easy, however.

"Really?" she managed to say, trying to buy time.

"Yup." said Culex, grinning. "I'd even do it now, if you'd like." May looked at him, wanting to slap him but held her anger.

"That would be fun, but I don't fool around with guys I don't know much about, if you know what I mean." said May. Matter of fact, she didn't "fool around" with any guy, regarding the use of expression in this context.

"You didn't seem to mind the bosom buddies, maybe you want more for later?" asked Culex. May stopped playing with his hair, and moved her hand across his neck. Culex felt the cool skin, and enjoyed the feeling. She gently removed her hand. May wasn't sure what to say, so Culex just looked at her.

"So what is that you are looking for May? You are not good at acting."

"Can't blame me for trying eh?" said May. Culex shrugged.

"Perhaps. Though those bosom buddies were fun." said Culex. May glared at him.

"No way. Not fun. At all. Why did you do that?" asked May.

"It was funny. Besides, you ranting about me cheating is not good, yes?" said Culex.

"I suppose, but that was really mean. And it hurt." said May, frowning a bit.

"Get over it." said Culex, a tad harshly.

"Were you always like this?" she asked. He gave her a questioning look.

"What do you mean?" asked Culex.

"Were you always so mean?" asked May. Culex sighed.  
"It is the nature of where I was born, so yes." said Culex. It was May's turn to be confused.

"What do you mean?" asked May. Culex looked up.

"I'm not from around here." said Culex simply.

"Like Izual?" asked May. Culex chuckled at her choice of comparison.

"Yes. Izual and I are very alike yet completely different." said Culex. May was about to ask something but Culex answered it. "We were raised in different clans."

"Clans still exist?" asked May, who thought that was an ancient concept. Culex chuckled.

"Yes, my clan was…different, however." said Culex. "We were a clan that were, respectively, more powerful than Izual's. We were more aggressive, unlike Izual's."

"Aggressive?" asked May, unsure of what he meant."Yes, my clan was very embodiment of pride. You wanted power. The more power you had, the better you were. It was everyone for himself." said Culex, chuckling as he relaxed bit more, leaning against the tree, getting comfortably. May was going to ask something but Culex answered it. "Yes, we were a clan. But our purpose was to serve our ruler. Even though we might get sent as team, the point was to accomplish the goal. If someone died, it didn't matter as long as the goal was accomplished. However, we trained hard for that not too happen."

"So, did you held funerals for the dead people?" asked May, intrigued by this. Culex shook his head.

"Not really. We didn't really care of our deaths. What bother us was the fact that someone could defeat one of us, which forced us to train harder. It was all to accomplish whatever our leader desired. Though we were very talented at what we did."

"So how did you manage to fight so well?" asked May, also wondering who the leader was. Culex looked around, then looked around.

"Keep it a secret." said Culex as he removed his glove, and showed a black circle on his palm, the whole inside circle black. May looked at it.

"What is it?" asked May, then small strings started coming out of and she jumped back, startled. "What are those?"

"You see, my clan's blood has something special on it. For some reason, the blood vessels are large than usually, and emit a strange energy that produce these strings." said Culex, showing her the strings. They seemed to be like regular string, except for a faint green glow, slowly moving like worms. "I can also manipulate their size and length." He pulled them back, then a large, thick, string came out, taking almost the size of the big circle. "The number of strings I can pull are proportional to the size, of course." And with that, he pulled the giant string back, and made a thrusting motion with his hand, and several strings came out heading straight for tree. "They have almost infinite end." May was just in awe.

"That's…incredible!" she said, completely amazed. Culex chuckled.

"Yes, quite useful really." said Culex. "Works excellent with puppets. It seems energy can travel through these, making controlling the puppet a lot easier. Watch." He pulled the puppet he used to steal the papers off Dr. Crowler and the strings moved like worms, attaching to certain parts of it. Then, the strings moved and the puppet moved like a human.

"As a young boy, people had discovered my mind had developed more than those of the regular humans, which is why I'm here, I suppose."

"So you are saying you are genius?" asked May, still awed by the string. Culex chuckled.

"Nah. I may be a genius at creating puppets, but that's about it. However, my mind posses some strange attributes that come handy once in a while." said Culex. "Aslong as it serves the goal of the leader, it shall be enough."

"So who is this leader that you speak so much about?" asked May, curious.

"She is an exiled human. I guess you could say she's the perfect human, for she has no sin. Though she has gained a fame for being an succubus, she is not. But rather the mother of all succubus." said Culex

"What's a succubus?" asked May. She was not familiar with the term.

"Go look it up. Stupid author doesn't want me discussing much about it, and would rather reviewers look for it through Wikipedia or something of the like. In any case, her name is Lilith. She is the first woman of earth." said Culex. May laughed.

"You are joking, right? If by clan you mean cult, then I agree with you." said May, yet Culex just shook his head.  
"It's no laughing matter. I'm sure you noticed Culex's emblem in his hand isn't exactly normal. His clan trapped Lilith in an imprisonment, for which she has been trying to break free for some time." said Culex. May thought about it. She had noticed some strange marks on Izual's hand. Maybe this wasn't such a crazy idea…

"So why did they trap Lilith?" asked May.

"Lilith was being forced to do something she didn't want to with Adam, the same Adam from the story of Adam and Eve, and she ran away from the Garden of Eden. From there, she had been exiled, and she had started to reproduce with a demon, creating countless succubi. The succubi were not her fault, however. She had not known their purpose, and let them free. Adam realized his mistake and wanted Lilith, so three angels were sent to get her. Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof." said Culex. "The angels tried to take her back, but she refused. They killed her demon mate, and said if she would not return, they would kill a hundred of her succubi a day, and she agreed. They essentially did so, and left her alone, to a certain extent. It seemed the world had entered a stage of peace, but it was not so." said Culex. May looked at him.

"What do you mean?" asked May, fascinated by the story.

"I shall discuss it a later day." said Culex. "Too much story for today." May sighed, but then grinned as she stood up.

"A pity, I had considered some of the things you suggested with you, see if I liked any." said May, with a mischievous grin. Culex was caught by surprise and looked up at her face. "But leaving me without an unfinished story? You killed the chance, Culex. Bye, rival." She smiled as she turned around and left. Culex quickly stood up, tried to chase her but tripped on a rock a few feet after he started running. His face hit the ground. He sighed.

"Well that was embarrassing." he said to himself. Then, he another voice in the surroundings.

"I agree as well." said the voice as a figure came out of the bushes, revealing to be Christy. He looked at her.

"How long have you been there?" he asked as he removed his face off the ground. He had hoped she hadn't seen him using the strings.

"Just long enough to catch her completely fooling you. Your face, and action, was priceless." said Christy, laughing. He clenched his fist.

"What. Ever." he said as he stood up and started walking away.

"You know, for someone who claim to be so good with girls, you just can't seem to deal with them eh?" said Christy then he snapped his finger and a trapped triggered spraying her with itchy powder.

"Knock yourself out." said Culex as Christ started itching like crazy and started scratching.


	18. Charubids, Puppets, and a Hacker?

-1A/N: Do NOT get used to chapters being so long. It's only a rare occurrence.

Chapter 18: Charubids, Puppets, and a Hacker?

"Crap!" shouted May, frustrated as she flipped through the pages of a big book titled 'History of Duel Monsters'. She had forgotten to study for the rather large test that was going to be in a few minutes, so she had to cram all the information. She was just glad she arrived to class early. Meanwhile, Izual still thought about what had happened last night. He could not remember how'd it ended, he just recalled feeling a rather large hit on the head. It was all much of a blur to him. He hadn't seen Suri since. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts until a loud bang in front of him disrupted him from his thoughts and made stumble over, hitting the floor. He groaned, followed by sigh. He looked up, noticing a big pile of books on his desk and female figure above.

"Jasmine?" he asked. His senses were a bit dull, though he just assumed it was because the hit, the toxin, the fact he had a rather bad night of sleep. Jasmine smiled.

"You always seem to be falling for me." She said, offering her hand to help him. Izual chuckled.

"Hard not too." He muttered under his breath as he stood up. "Why did you drop those books on my desk?"

"To wake you up. Something tells me you didn't study, did you?" said Jasmine. Izual scratched the back of his head.

"Study for what?" asked Izual. Jasmine sighed. She was about to mutter something, but Dr. Crowler called everyone to their seat as class was about to begin. She tossed, gently, a folded paper at Izual, and winked at him. Izual was left dumb-founded.

"Class. Pull out your pencils and papers for the test." said Dr. Crowler as several questions appeared on the screen. The answers were in the A-E format, with twenty questions, making rather small for such a big test. Izual took the paper and opened it. It seemed to be the answer key to a test. Then, it seems as if Izual finally woke up, and smiled. He found Jasmine staring at him, winking and smiling. He smiled back as he started copying down the answers. Meanwhile, May struggled. She had no clue on the answers at all, then she felt a poke.

"Hm?" she turned around only to have a paper ball hit her in the eye.

"Ow!" she uttered in pain, making everyone turned to face. Crowler raised an eyebrow.  
"Are you quite alright?" asked Dr. Crowler. May nodded as she rubbed her eye. She undid the paper ball. It said:

_Ha! I pwned you. Similar to how misplAced cApitals can Easily net you a solid graDe in this ExAm. You Better do good, okay? Getting rather Crappy grades for somEone like yourself is Baffling, and BordErline Dumb. In anycAse, I biD you gooD luck on this tEst, and Because, if I know you, you will neeD it, more than mE. _

_Your "rivAl" And, I supposE friEnd, CulEx._

"What is he talking about?" May asked herself as she read it over and noticed the sentence 'similar to how misplAced cApitals can Easily net you a solid graDe in this ExAm.', could it be? She looked for an answer she knew and checked. Her assumption was correct. The answers to the exam were the same as the misplaced capitals! "Looks like I owe him one." she started writing down the answers. Meanwhile, Crowler looked at Culex with anger.

"What do you think you are doing?" he asked as he noticed Culex, leaning on the chair, almost sleeping.

"Trying to sleep…why?" asked Culex.

"If you do not get your act together I shall remove you off this island." said Crowler. He seemed to be in rather angry mood.

"I know." he said as he closed his eyes, trying to sleep once more.

"Have you no ambition?" asked Crowler, slowly losing his temper. "If you were removed from this Island, you would lose the great privilege of being recognized as duelist.

"So?" asked Culex, starting to get amused.

"If not a duelist, then why are you here? What would you like to be doing in five years?" he asked, somewhat curious and at the same time angry.

"Honestly? I'd like to be in a tropical island with some sexy dumb chick who thinks I'm greatest thing since Yugi Moto. Actually, I'd like to be doing that right now." said Culex, as he thought about it. Everyone around him started laughing. "In any case, here is my test." Crowler was infuriated and snatched the test and left.

"Talk about honesty." said May, as she shook her head, copying more answers. Dr. Crowler promptly dismissed class and student went to check the match ups for the tournaments. It seems for medical issues, the match were delays for a whole day. Culex looked at the match ups. He smiled as he noticed the name.  
"Izual…" said Culex, chuckling as he left the crowd. "This gives me tonight and tomorrow for Izual to be inconveniently missing our duel." He looked up at the sun. "Yeah, he's going down tonight."

"Who's going down where?" asked May as she poked him from behind. He jumped forward in surprise.

"Don't sneak up on me." said Culex. "By the way, did you enjoy my letter, mocking the fact you failed to study?"

"A coded version of cheating. It was rather clever." said May. "I suppose I do owe you one."

"Of course you do…" said Culex

…

Izual walked out of that exam, smiling. He couldn't complain. An easy A is always nice. He noticed Jasmine waiting for him. They started walking together through the forest. "Thanks for the paper there. I had completely forgotten about that exam." said Izual, honestly.

"It's cool. You needed the help anyways. Another F wouldn't look nice eh?" said Jasmine. Izual laughed.

"Yeah. Knowing Crowler, however, he'll find a way to make me miss one, somehow." said Izual.

"Nah. He is not THAT mean. Shouldn't you check who your next match in the tournament?" asked Jasmine. Izual seemed uninterested.

"I can wait 'till later." said Izual. Then, he gave a small smile not looking at her. "Besides, I rather spend time with you." Jasmine reddened a bit.

"Thanks. Spending time with you is nice as well, though there is one thing that bothers me." said Jasmine. Izual was caught by surprise.

"What is it?" asked Izual, curious.

"Why did Culex trapped you and left you there that night?" asked Jasmine as she recalled the night where she found him hanging on a branch, tied to a puppet. Izual chuckled a little embarrassed.

"Culex is a trickster, and rather clever. He is also a jerk most of the times." said Izual. "Incredibly enough, I don't know much about him. Shade knew more about him." The thoughts of Shade came to his mind but he tried his best to push them aside.

"Shade?" asked Jasmine, not recalling anyone named that.

"He's an old friend," said Izual "and let's leave it at that." said Izual. Jasmine wondered who this Shade person was, but figured she would ask some other time.

"Well if you say-Ah!" was saying Jasmine, but she was interrupted as two figures hidden in the forest jumped and surprised Jasmine, making her move towards Izual's side in a rather unorthodox way, making her stumble with her own feet, falling towards Izual. He noticed the movement and position himself so he wouldn't stumble as he caught her, making her fall in to his arm into a sort of embrace. He wrapped his arms around her, as if making sure she wouldn't fall.

"Whoa! Careful!" said Izual, making sure she wouldn't fall for from his grasp. Alexis and Mindy, the two figures, exchange glances as they smiled.

"You okay Jasmine? We didn't mean to surprise you." said Mindy. Despite Jasmine being able to recover her stability, she still remained in Izual's grasp. She looked at her hands which were being held by Izual, subconsciously.

"That's…okay." said Jasmine, smiling. "What's up?"

"It's our turn to clean the wading pool. The one where he watched us." said Alexis as she pointed at Izual. He opened his mouth to complain then noticed he was holding Jasmine still. She turned her head to face him and smiled. Her smile, and the fact of his realization, made him slowly drop her hands. She giggled as she joined Mandy and Alexis but not before whispering.

"Meet me later tonight?" she said, in the form of a question. Then, she and her friends left, leaving a dumbfound Izual.

…

"You never did quite finish that story." said May. Culex turned around. He was to busy in his thoughts.

"Hmm?" he said, not having paid attention.

"Yeah, you never finished your story." said May. Culex tried to remember.

"Where did I leave off?" asked Culex, not being able to recall.

"Something about a fake peace." said May. Culex remembered.

"Ah, yes, after Lilith made an agreement with the angels. Lilith went to seek for a mate. With our imperfections, Lilith seem like goddess to men, which caused great distress between her relations with humans. Those who could see her true colors were almost hypnotized by her appearance, as she was remarkably beautiful. Several of the people of the earth were doubting her goodness and decided it was best to seal her away, and prevent any more trouble. They prayed to God, and God answered them. They were granted an object that had enough power to seal Lilith. A blue stone, titled the Soul Stone. The believers in Lilith and thus separated from the others. Thus diving the world into two sides. The West Side and the East Side. However, this wasn't enough and attack occurred. In the end, a single group, lead by the Charubid Sen-"

"Charubid?" asked May. Culex looked at her, chuckling.

"It's a terminology for a warrior angel. Anyhow, the Charubid Senoy lead the group to Lilith's chamber. It is unsure of what exactly happened in the chamber, but few men died, Senoy was harmed, but the Lilith was trapped within the Soul Stone. A great defeat for the West Side. Lilith has remained trapped ever since. She has only been able to communicate with us through our dream. It seems the stone was not fool proof, and Lilith's energy leaked. This lead to various of the East Side members seeing the light and joining the West Side. We are currently looking for a way to break the stone. It seems to be too powerful for regular means, though if we can enough of a power source, we can free her indirectly."

May was amazed by this story, and a little scared.

"So why are you here?" asked May. Culex sighed. He looked up. The sun was setting.

"To retrieve the biggest power source at my reach that I could think of." said Culex as he started walking away.

"Which is?" asked May. Culex as from his back, a small tear on his shirt was made, and from it, several mechanical spiders at her.

"Bosom buddies." said Culex. May jumped back, stepping away. Culex chuckled as he ran through the forest. "Time to find you, Izual."

…

Izual walked through the forest. "Strange day…" said Izual, scratching the back of his head. "Though I really can't complain." Jasmine's words still lingered through his head. _"Meet me later tonight?" _He could only assume she meant in the wading pool. This brought other thoughts to his head, like the last time he was in there. Just thought of it made him chuckle.

"Something funny, Izual?" asked Culex, standing on a tree branch.

"When did you get here?" asked Izual, looking at Culex.  
"I've been here. By the way, you are my next opponent in the tournament. You know what that means, right?" asked Culex. Izual sighed.

"You will forfeit the match and you came to tell me so?" said Izual, sarcastically. Culex smiled.

"A comedian eh?" said Culex as the reflection of the sun beaming shone from the strings. The strings moved and from the bushes a human-sized puppet came out. It looked liked regular puppets, which were very similar to the ones the Magical Marionette used, which were basic designs of human puppets, with no hair. They seemed to be connected by joints. The puppet held two knife-like weapons. Culex moved his hands forwards the puppet moved like a real human being, charging straight at Izual. Izual pulled his dagger.  
"Not long enough." he said as he jumped back, dodging the slices of the puppet. Considering the fact that these was a puppet, the swipes were amazing. Izual had just barely enough time to do a bigger jump and lifted his hand, making his palm face the puppet. Then, from his palm, a large concentrated sound blast struck the puppet, sending him crashing into a tree. Culex pulled him back. "Bye puppeteer!" He lifted his hand to blast then noticed, from the corner of his eye, another puppet coming from behind. This one was identical to the one before it. Izual had barely enough time to jump back, barely dodging the slash.

"Close one Izual." said Culex as the other puppet rose and the two stood together.

"Two puppets at once?" asked Izual and he was responded by charging puppets. Izual jumped to one side, and blasted the puppets with sound blast, pushing them away from Culex and himself. Then he faced Culex with his palm up and a sound blast came, hitting Culex and knocking him off the branch. Izual took advantage of the momentum and rushed to strike Culex while he was down. However as he ran, he felt a sphere hitting his right foot from behind, making him trip and fall backwards.

"What the hell?" he asked and noticed Culex had commanded the puppets to removed their spherical heads and threw them at Izual. Izual was highly impressed with the level of control Culex had over his puppet. However, Izual knew that this was no time for acknowledging skill. He rolled on to one side, dodging the knives being thrown. He stood up and noticed the puppet were disarmed, however, he also noticed Culex had stood up. He quickly slashed the puppet strings , cutting the connection between Culex and his puppet. Izual grinned as he headed straight at Culex. Culex had only enough time to block the several punches by Izual. The puppeteer quickly jumped to one side to avoid the onslaught. Izual quickly responded by sending a sound blast Culex, knocking him. Culex smiled as he pulled one of the puppets, making the puppet hit Izual, knocking him down. Culex quickly stood up and the strings from his right hands shot out into the nearby bushes. Then, they immediately shot out poison-tipped darts at Izual. Izual quickly used the puppet's body to block. Some of darts passed, ripping some of his shirt, but nothing to badly. He was too distracted with the darts that he didn't noticed the other puppet behind him. The puppet kicked him in the back, inflicting great deal of pain to Izual. He lifted him and threw him against a tree causing more pain. Culex chuckled as the darts were sent at Izual, but were deflected by a sound wave from Izual's palm. He growled. How could he control THREE puppets? He only had two hands! He noticed that from his left hand, the strings had divided themselves into three. Izual quickly stood up with some pains, and zigzagged his way to Culex, dodging the darts. Then, before he could struck Culex, a fourth puppet got in his way, and he started to exchange hits with the puppet. The puppet, backed up with other puppets, made Izual retreat. Then, Izual felt a hit on his back. He regretted not wearing his chain mail anymore. He looked behind him, another puppet. _How the hell was he controlling five puppets!? _Where his Izual's thoughts. He was enraged and quickly managed to run through the forest. The puppet's ran behind him.

"Need a plan. Need a plan. Need a plan." he repeated then he turned around and blasted the incoming puppets. "Have to hit Culex." Izual ran towards the puppets, then skillfully zigzagged them, and actually managed to attack Culex. Culex had no choice but to use his palms to defend himself from the fast fury of punches. One hit got him on the stomach, which made double-over. This was Izual needed. He quickly took advantage and lifted his knee, making it connect with Culex's chin lifted his head. He took a swing at Culex's face with his fist, then with his left and finished his hit combination with a large blast of sound, sending Culex rather far, at fast speed, ending with him crashing into a tree. Culex twitched from the pain. His puppet seemed to collapse. He was bleeding from his lip.

"Damn it." said Culex, then he noticed a charging Izual at fast speed. His eyes were glowing red. "He's drawing power from Lilith? But how?" Izual grinned almost like a madman. There were no defenses, nothing between him, and that which he was approaching rapidly. Just as it seemed to be won, a sharp force burrowed deep into his side, knocking him off his feet from surprise, and sending him sprawling to the ground. His world seemed to revolve as he regained some of his scattered wits, and searched the area for whatever had struck him. At first he saw nothing, but then a previously hidden small lithe form caught his attention. It was decidedly female, despite the semi-concealing black cloak that was draped about her shoulders. She was looking down at him, steel gray eyes seeming to laugh at the comical position he had fallen in. A dainty hand half covered her mouth, stifling what seemed to be a quiet giggle that set her shoulders shaking. The movement disturbed her short black hair which was threaded loosely with two white ribbons. The ribbons weren't tight, so they did not restrict the movement of the strands, which only seemed to intensify as the laugh became audible. "You…" Her voice was very soft, but still quavered with laughter, "are far too funny." Izual barely managed to stand up and recognized the image.

"Katreal." said Izual. His body ached in pain. Culex chuckled as Izual noticed the connection of a few strings that connected from his right hand to Katreal. Katreal had always been Culex's masterpiece. Everyone knew this. Izual was even afraid of the puppet. Even Shade commented on the power of the puppet, and Shade never commented on things that weren't powerful. If you didn't know better, you could even mistake Katreal for a living, breathing human. The origins of Katreal still puzzled Izual, and, from what he could tell, also Shade. He would never completely say where it came from, but rather chose not to talk about it, despite Izual always asking.

"The one and only." said Katreal. The puppet strings moved and she charged straight on. That was the one thing Izual never understood about that puppet. It talked. He was never sure if it was a puppeteer's trick or if it actually talked. Either way, he could tell the strings controlled her movement. He rapidly lifted his palm and shot a strong blast of sound at Katreal. She seemed to place her own palm before Izual had fire the sound blast. Then, when the sound blast came out, it seemed to go into the palm of Katreal.

"What the-" said Izual, but couldn't finish as a sound blast came from the palm of Katreal sending him against the tree. He started panting. He couldn't take her.

"She…she…" said Izual, panting, unsure of what to say.

"Is better than you." said Katreal. Culex chuckled as he stood up from the tree.

"Finish him." said Culex as he moved the strings and Katreal rushed to attack. Izual chuckled.

"Damn." he said as he noticed Katreal turning her hand into a fist, extending her arm back as she went for the hit. Izual quickly moved from the tree. "Have to strike her. One hit is all I need." He said to himself as he focused his energy, his eyes glowed red. He ran, faster than before. Then just before they encountered, both jumped to the same side, as if copying each other's strategy. However, Izual took the first chance and deliver rapidly fast hits, all in the air. Katreal blocked them and as she landed jumped diagonally to the side, unlike Izual who jumped to the right. He used the momentum to charge again.

"Increased stamina, increased dexterity, and increased speed? How the hell is pulling all this out of Lilith?" asked Culex, himself, as he couldn't puppeteer at the speed Izual was hitting. However, it seemed at one point, the strings were going faster than Culex could. Then, from Katreal's legs, big spheres came and struck Izual on his legs making him topple over, completely destroying his attack, and allowing Katreal to retaliate. As he fell, she connected her knee with his chin, lifting him up again then grabbed his collar.

"Nice try." she said, then threw him at fast speed at a tree. As he crashed into a tree once more, he groaned. The glowing stopped. He had used his energy in an "all or nothing" maneuver. Essentially, he accomplished the "nothing" part of the expression. Then, from Katreal's hand, a slot opened and a dagger came out of it. It was held tight as she positioned the dagger at Izual's face.

"Let's finish him." said Culex as he moved the string and Katreal charged, straight for the kill. Izual closed his eyes, then heard a loud blocking sound. He opened his eyes to see a white-cloaked figure standing in a way where his body could adjust to the momentum of the hit. The figure had his fist piercing Katreal's abdomen, holding her back.. She growled.

"Who are you? Why are you intervening?" asked Katreal. He pulled his arm back a bit, then used both his hands to quickly hoist her and threw her back. The event was too quick for Culex to notice it, thus making Katreal unable to respond. He quickly lifted his feet kicked her in her abdomen, pushing her back. Before the cloaked figure could strike her again, Culex pulled back on the strings , causing an immediate retreat. The cloaked figure chuckled.

"Playing with dead bodies is not fun." said the cloaked-figure and Culex turned pale. Izual wondered what the strange person meant, but due to Culex's reaction, it must have been something horrible.

"You. It can't be you." said Culex, taking steps back. The figure merely took step forwards. Katreal switched glances between Culex and the figure. The figure charged straight at Katreal. She blocked his fast hits, faster than those made by Izual. Then, she jumped back and from her arms, poison darts trigger heading towards him. The darts seemed to hit the cloak directly, but it seemed as if there was something between the cloaked-figure's cloak and his skin and the dart was easily removed and the poison dripped off, falling right of the cloak, not even tainting it. Culex growled. He moved the strings, triggering a command on Katreal. Her eye was actually a video camera, and Culex had just triggered. It started recording. "Let's try this." He moved the strings and Katreal charged the directly at the cloaked-stranger. He looked at her charging then started running towards a nearby tree. "There he goes…if he does it…" said Culex, to himself then noticed him stepping on the using the momentum of motion. It was a tactic used by someone who Culex was very familiar with, however, this individual did something different. Rather than do the typical back-flip and strike from behind, he used the momentum to quickly touch the lowest branch with his foot and use counterforce. Due to the momentum carried over it held him for about two seconds, giving him just enough time to take a swing at Katreal's face, making her stumble backwards. Then, he fell on his hands and kicked her, knocking her on the floor. Culex pulled on the strings, making Katreal skid to him. Then, out of nowhere, Izual appears and kicks Katreal on her side, tossing her to one side. She managed to stand up while the air, but barely enough time to block the shots from the cloaked-assailant. She lifted her leg, kicked him stomach with enough force to knock him back. However, soon after another attack by Izual came. Culex couldn't keep up with the double teaming, so he made Katreal jump back and in the air, reeled her in with the strings. "I'll be back. You will pay." said Culex as the Katreal was reeled and a giant smokescreen occurred, granting them safe passage to exit. Izual blasted the smoke away and noticed everyone was gone.  
"Stranger. Show yourself!" shouted Izual as he looked around. No sign of anyone. "Where could he have left?" Izual checked the surroundings then himself for injuries. He seemed to be fine, except for backs from all the crashing into trees. He sighed, and started walking.

…

Alexis sighed. She looked at the work done by Mindy, Jasmine, and her. She smiled. The place did look rather clean. The girls had changed from their white obelisk to old white shirts and short shorts. It was more efficient and easier to clean this way, and it would save the troubles of having to clean their uniforms.

"I think we are done." said Alexis, but Mindy and Jasmine were still cleaning their parts. They were scrubbing the floor of the area. Mindy shouted in joy as she finished.

"Yup." said Mindy as she stood up and stretched. Jasmine was, however, not done.

"Hey, wait! I'm not done!" she said, placing the scrub aside and standing up.

"It's just a little left. You can finish it quickly." said Alexis as she tossed the keys to Jasmine. "Close up when you finish." Jasmine took a few quick steps to the grab the key. She sighed.  
"Bye…" she said as she turned around and slipped on the scrub, making her fall into the wading pool. She sighed, making some air bubbles come out. She raised her head and most of her body out of the pool.

"Taking a dip in the water?" asked Izual, grinning as he walked, a bit unorthodox due to the fight. She turned around and saw Izual. She smiled as she got out of the wading pool and smiled.

"Wow. You actually came." said Jasmine, happy for him to have come. Izual chuckled.

"Did you expect not to come? I can still leave if you'd like." said Izual. Jasmine shook her head.

"No, no. You can stay." she said, keeping her smile. Then, she noticed his strange walking. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just had an encounter with Culex." said Izual. Jasmine shook her head.

"He beat you up again?" asked Jasmine, laughing a bit. Izual glared.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but no. He got pretty beat up, which is why he had to retreat. I couldn't chase after him due to a smokescreen." said Izual.

"It's okay. At least you are fine." said Jasmine. "Don't want to go save you again." It was Izual's turn to sigh.

"That won't be needed. So what's up with you? Were you taking a break from cleaning, by swimming?" asked Izual. Jasmine glared.  
"No. I tripped on the scrub and fell into the pool." said Jasmine, scratching the back of her head, then sneezed.

"You should dry yourself up. Before that sneeze becomes a cold." suggested Izual, as he looked around for towels but failed to see one.  
"There is none around. Only towels you'll find are ones left by people. Otherwise, you have to bring your own." said Jasmine, she smiled. "I would take the wet shirt off, but you are too much of a pervert for me to do so." Izual looked surprised.

"I thought we went over this, countless of times?" said Izual. "Besides, I wouldn't look." Jasmine let out a short laugh.

"I'm sure you would. Most obelisk guys do." said Jasmine. Izual gave her a stare.

"I swear I wouldn't. I'm man enough to control my instincts." said Izual, giving her a confident look.

"Care to wager on it?" said Jasmine with a grin. Izual was caught off guard by this.

"A wager eh? Sure. What's it going to be?" asked Izual, curious as to what Jasmine would wager.

"Since I'm sure of my victory, I'll make it something easy. If I win, you have to kiss my feet." said Jasmine. Izual's only reaction was some laugh.

"Good thing that won't happen. And what if I win?" asked Izual, amused by this wager.

"Then…hmm…I'll do your laundry for about…sixth months?" said Jasmine. Izual was intrigued by this. Doing laundry wasn't all that difficult, especially with the accommodations of Ra students. However, taking the clothes front back did get annoying at times. Six months was a rather long time.

"Sounds fair." said Izual. Jasmine chuckled. An easy win, was all she thought.

"Take a good look as you won't get anymore." said Jasmine, then removed her shirt, leaving her in a gray sports bra. "Now, let me finish my work okay?" Izual rose an eyebrow and couldn't help but smile. He could see the why guys stared, and fought his instincts and looked up.  
"Go for it." said Izual. Izual only grinned. This would be very interesting.

…

"It is an outrage!" shouted the chancellor from the girl's school. "You have not found that thief, at all!" Shepard sighed. He was sitting in his office, discussing matters with the Chancellor from the other school.  
"It's alright. We shall find the culprit. It will not take long until the tournament is over." said Chancellor Shepard, then a knock on the door occurred. "Come in." A young girl about Izual's and Culex's age stepped in. She had her hair tied in a bun and wore glasses. Her skin was tanned, which was quite rare in this part, thus giving her an exotic appearance, skin-wise. She wore a pair of big glasses, which, overall, gave her the typical Secretary-look.

"My apologies but there seems to be a problem." said the young lady. Shepard looked at her.  
"What is it?" he asked and she placed a laptop in front of him. It seems like a lot of the files had been deleted, as well as many files corrupted. Even the background had changed "3y3 4m w4tch1ng." and the option to changed had locked. "What is this?" The lady took a deep breath and said.

"We got a hacker."


End file.
